Launched by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, this week has been NFP Awareness Week! It highlights the 40th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae this Friday the 25th and the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne (the parents of Mary) on Saturday.

I am on the Gospel of Life Committee at our parish and we will be having a presentation on Sunday on Humanae Vitae, the Church and Contraception. Our associate pastor will be presenting the basic message of Humanae Vitae and the consistency of the Church’s teaching on contraception; a couple from our parish will give their testimony on what it’s like to live this teaching within their marriage; and a woman who directs the Our Lady Queen of Peace Center in our town (a Creighton Model fertility care clinic) will give a presentation on NFP.

The basic message of Humanae Vitae and the teaching of the Catholic Church in this regard is that “each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life.” But that doesn’t mean that couples must constantly be reproducing. There may be at times serious reasons for a couple to avoid pregnancy. In these circumstances it is then acceptable for that couple to take advantage of the natural cycle, engaging in sexual intercourse only during those times when a woman is infertile. The great news here is that now women can keep track of their fertility – based on several biological clues – with almost pinpoint accuracy, making NFP highly effective in both achieving and postponing pregnancy.

This is the profound difference between NFP and contraception. Infertile intercourse is an act of God, whereas, through contraception, the couple, “takes the powers of life into their own hands with the intent of thwarting God’s creative designs.” It is the difference between being non-procreative (NFP) and anti-procreative (contraception). That is why the practice of NFP must always be undertaken with a “procreative attitude”:

The right and lawful ordering of birth demands, first of all, that spouses fully recognize and value the true blessings of family life and that they acquire complete mastery over themselves and their emotions (HV, 21)

Other advantages of NFP:

~It is 100% NATURAL and much better for your body
~NFP methods, together with NaProTECHNOLOGY, have been used to effectively achieve pregnancy by identifying and then correcting the underlying causes for infertility and multiple miscarriages (see my post NFP Works!).
~It is also good for women in general, young/old, married/single, to be in tune with their own bodies.
~Listen to Greg and Jennifer Willits from the Rosary Army Catholic Podcast share how NFP has “enhanced our marriage in so many ways” and even given them a greater appreciation for the marital act itself.

It should be noted that the Church’s position on contraception and really on sex and marriage in general is not merely some made up Catholic law. It is a truth, rooted in laws of nature:

This particular doctrine, often expounded by the magisterium of the Church, is based on the inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance which are both inherent to the marriage act.

The reason is that the fundamental nature of the marriage act, while uniting husband and wife in the closest intimacy, also renders them capable of generating new life—and this as a result of laws written into the actual nature of man and of woman. And if each of these essential qualities, the unitive and the procreative, is preserved, the use of marriage fully retains its sense of true mutual love and its ordination to the supreme responsibility of parenthood to which man is called. (HV, 12)

Read: God, Sex and Babies, What the Church Really Teaches About Responsible Parenthood

NFP info:
Couple to Couple League
Pope Paul VI Institute

Previous posts:
How Can There Be Too Many Children?
NFP vs. Contraception
NFP in Scripture!
NFP Podcast!
NFP Works!
Contraception Videos
Married Life and the Gift of Love