We have been told that many—or even most—NFP teachers fail to address the temptations to which married couples as well as single people are tempted. It takes less than a couple minutes to convey standard Catholic teaching against masturbation and sodomy in a class; it takes less than a couple inches of space in a text to do the same. And we know from an East Coast study published in secular newspapers that at least half of high school teens in that survey have experienced oral sodomy. Now, what happens when these former adolescents find themselves in an NFP class and hear that abstinence is the method for postponing pregnancy? Surely they will be tempted to think, “Well, we know how to get around that one!”
One does not have to promote immorality these days. It is the given. What is needed is the promotion of chastity, both marital and pre-marital. Yes, it is good to get young women off hormonal birth control with its abortifacient properties, but that is simply not enough. The goal has to be chastity, and it is a serious omission not to address this issue.
The purpose of any Catholic-sponsored or recommended NFP program must be to encourage virtuous living, not just the adoption of non-harmful birth control with immorality during the fertile time. The NFP course ought to be an agent of the New Evangelization.
John Kippley