Let’s take a dive into WHY natural family planning (NFP) is in accord with Catholic Church teaching.
God as the divine author wrote LOVE and LIFE on the heart of marriage.
“Marriage is not the effect of chance or the product of evolution of unconscious natural forces; it is the wise institution of the Creator to realize in mankind His design of love.”
Humanae Vitae, paragraph 8
Pope St. Paul VI in his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae articulated Church teaching on married love and sexuality in accord with God’s intended design. What a gift it is to participate in this sacrament!
So what did Humanae Vitae actually say about NFP?
1. The unitive and procreative aspects can never be separated from the marital act (HV 12)
The sexual relationship between a husband and wife expresses their married love by becoming “one body” (Genesis 2:24) and “one flesh” (Mark 10:8, Matthew 19:6). The sexual union of spouses was and is designed by God to be both unitive and procreative. If it is not both together, than it cannot be either exclusively.
Through sexual intimacy, spouses give of themselves to express their love, strengthen their emotional and physical connection, and foster unity. Their marital relationship remains open to the potential for creating new life. Both aspects are intrinsically good and essential to the act of marriage.
2. NFP works in accord to God’s plan for marriage and family by allowing your marriage to have the key elements of married love: free, total, faithful, and fruitful (HV 9)
Free
Marriage to be valid, must be an act of free will, “intended to endure and to grow by means of the joys and sorrows of daily life; become one only heart and one only soul and together attain human perfection” (HV 9).
Total
Married love is a total gift of self to the beloved – fertility and all!
“That very special form of personal friendship in which husband and wife generously share everything, allowing no unreasonable exceptions and not thinking solely of their own convenience. Whoever really loves his partner loves not only for what he receives, but loves that partner for the partner’s own sake, content to be able to enrich the other with the gift of himself.”
Humanae Vitae, paragraph 9
Faithful
In being true to wedding vows promised at the altar before God and family and friends, the married relationship is “exclusive of all other, and this until death” (HV, 9). Man and woman being faithful to one another in marriage attempts to model the relationship of God and his undying faithfulness to His people.
Fruitful
Sexual union of the married couple is always the fruit of a unique, sanctifying intimacy between spouses. And that married couple’s love is always fruitful. The “fruit” could come in the gift of children, but also could present itself as the very real spiritual fruitfulness that is born in their married love. To notice and give thanks for the spiritual fruitfulness, we may have to take time to pray and daily examine the sacrament and vocation of marriage!
For the married relationship to flourish as God intended for it, it requires sacrifice for our beloved. As true love is willing the good of the other.
3. Responsible parenthood is a balance of prudence, generosity, and chastity (HV 10)
As Catholics called to marriage, we are called to discern family planning in light of responsible parenthood. Responsible parenthood is a combination of the practical and virtuous:
The first step in practicing responsible parenthood, according to Humanae Vitae, is “knowledge and respect of the body’s biological functioning.” Essentially, the Church invites us to learn and reverence the beauty of the way He designed human reproduction and functioning which could bring us to the place of learning how our bodies work by learning natural family planning.
Once we understand how our reproductive anatomy and physiology, then we are called to interpret that functioning. In the last few decades, men and women of science have answered this call by developing well-researched methods of natural family planning.
Discernment in Family Planning
As Catholics, we directly invite God into the family planning process. While navigating discernment in family planning, “reason and will must be exerted over our passions” (HV 10) guided by a balance of prudence, generosity, and chastity.
With regard to physical, economic, psychological and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children, and by those who, for serious reasons and with due respect to moral precepts, decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time. (HV 10)
In Humanae Vitae, we are given the criteria by which responsible parenthood can be exercised. But as stated in the Church document Gaudium et Spes, “the parents themselves and no one else should ultimately make this judgment in the sight of God.” (Gaudium et Spes, 48). It is our responsibility to discern well how God is calling us as a married couple to plan our family. This will look different for different families:
As a “deliberate and generous decision to raise a numerous family, or by the decision made for grave motives and with due respect for moral law to avoid for time being, or even an indeterminate period, a new birth” (HV 10)
Our holiness is not determined by the number of children we have, but rather by our commitment to doing God’s will in all things.
To learn more:
- Humanae Vitae (Pope St. Paul VI)
- Theology of the Body (Pope St. John Paul II)
- Familiaris Consortio (Pope St. John Paul II)
- Amoris Laetitia (Pope Francis)
- The Secret About Sex and Holiness video (Fr. Mike Schmitz with Ascension Presents)
Interested in learning more about NFP? Please continue to browse our website or contact our office!