STANDARDS FOR TEACHING WITH NFP INTERNATIONAL
The NFP International Program is a faith-based program of instruction that is unique in one or more respects. Its NFP teaching program includes ecological breastfeeding, the covenant theology of sexuality, moral teaching about specific behaviors, a choice-based approach to systematic NFP, a call to generosity in terms of traditional Catholic teaching, and an effort to let Christ be the primary reason for the decision not to use unnatural forms of birth control. The unique character of the NFPI program attracts some but not all. In what follows, we clarify these characteristics so that prospective teachers will understand the program and its potential to have life-changing effects in those who experience it.
Faith-based. We believe that the most important question in life is this: “Have I let Jesus Christ become my personal Lord and Savior in such a way that I submit my life to Him?” Specifically with regard to the NFPI apostolate, “Am I willing to submit the exercise of my sexual powers to his dominion?” We believe that we are called to let Jesus be the King and Center of our lives and to act accordingly. We believe that God has a plan for love, marriage, and sexuality. We believe that He has not left us orphans in a wilderness of conflicting ideas but promised to send the Holy Spirit to guide the Apostles and their successors throughout the ages. We believe that Jesus founded the Catholic Church upon the apostles with Peter as their visible head; we believe He kept his promise at Pentecost and that He continues to keep that promise in our day in and through his Church. We believe with St. Paul that we have been saved through the obedience of Christ who “became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). We believe that to accept on faith the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding sexual morality including birth control is not at all denigrating to one’s intelligence but is an excellent exercise of our wills illumined by faith. That is, we believe that to accept on faith the teaching of the Church affirmed in Humanae Vitae is to accept it as the teaching of Christ Himself through his chosen vehicle.
Such faith-based acceptance of the teaching of the Catholic Church does not diminish our respect for other reasons based on nature, science, philosophy, and theology. Similarly, our respect for these various reasons does not diminish our respect for the faith-based decision to accept the teaching of the Church because of belief that such teaching is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit. Truly, natural family planning is an area in which faith and science meet in a harmonious way.
John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality
Natural Family Planning, available at www.nfpandmore.org