POPE JOHN PAUL II ON NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING

TO TEACHERS OF NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING Pope John Paul II

Natural family planning "supports the process of freedom and emancipation of women and peoples from unjust family planning programmes, which bring in their sad wake the various forms of contraception abortion and sterilization", the Holy Father said on 7 December 1996 to those attending a course for teachers of the natural methods of fertility regulation, sponsored by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Here is a translation of the Pope's address, which was given in Italian.

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Brothers and Sisters.

1. Once again this year the Catholic University's Study and Research Centre for Natural Fertility Regulation is offering a course to train teachers in the natural methods. This meeting is particularly significant, because it is being held during the 20th year of this centre's activity, an event recently celebrated with a congress of international importance significantly entitled: "At the Sources of Life."

On this occasion I am pleased to renew my sentiments of appreciation and esteem for the work you have done, which is better and better understood by the ecclesial community and by medical and scientific circles.

2. The scientific validity of the methods and their educational effectiveness makes them increasingly appreciated for the human values that they presuppose and strengthen, when they are taught and presented in a suitable anthropological and ethical context, according to the wise directive expressed in Paul VI's Encyclical Humanae vitae and so many times explained in subsequent documents of the Magisterium.
Their humanizing character is all the more obvious from the fact that using the natural methods requires and strengthens the harmony of the married couple, it helps and confirms the rediscovery of the marvellous gift of parenthood, it involves respect for nature and demands the responsibility of the individuals. According to many authoritative opinions, they also foster more completely that human ecology which is the harmony between the demands of nature and personal behaviour.

At the global level this choice supports the process of freedom and emancipation of women and peoples from unjust family planning programmes which bring in their sad wake the various forms of contraception, abortion and sterilization.

3. But more immediately, your work each day is valuable and sought after in parish communities and in diocesan centres for the pastoral care of the family and life. In this regard, I wrote in the Encyclical Evangelium vitae that "an honest appraisal of their effectiveness should dispel certain prejudices which are still widely held, and should convince married couples, as well as health-care and social workers, of the importance of proper training in this area. The Church is grateful to those who, with personal sacrifice and often unacknowledged dedication, devote themselves to the study and spread of these methods, as well as to the promotion of education in the moral values which they presuppose" (n. 97).

The moment has come for every parish and every structure of consultation and assistance to the family and to the defense of life to have personnel available who can teach married couples how to use the natural methods. For this reason I particularly recommend that Bishops, parish priests and those responsible for pastoral care welcome and promote this valuable service.

With this hope, as I ask the Lord to constantly accompany your untiring work, I sincerely bless you and with you the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, whose Faculty of Medicine and Surgery promotes and supports your work, which is worthy of the highest esteem and well-suited to the tasks and role of a Catholic university.

Taken from:
L'Osservatore Romano
Weekly Edition in English
22 January 1997

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Recommended Related Insights:

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/contraception%E2%80%99s-dark-fruits
- Marriage, Contraception and Sex from Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn 
http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/contraception-marriage-and-sex-from.html
- Blessed Mother Teresa on the Value of Natural Family Planning  http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/blessed-mother-teresa-on-value-of.html

BLESSED MOTHER TERESA ON THE VALUE OF NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING

THE VALUE OF NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING
Excerpt from the book "Loving Jesus"
by Mother Teresa

It is true, people are very anxious about the future and about over-population. But there is natural family planning. That method can help couples plan their family without destroying God's gift of life.

I think we should train our children for the future by teaching them to respect the dignity of life, by teaching them that life is a gift from God, something created by Him, something to be lived for Him. By the purity and sanctity of their lives, they will then be able to face the future using simple, natural means that God has created.

We are, on our part, teaching our poor people natural family planning. We are teaching the young people so that in the future they will know what to do and will protect life.

The poor have told me, "From the time we have been practicing this way of life, our family has remained united, our family is healthy, and we can have a baby whenever we like." All this has brought so much peace and unity into the lives of our poor people.

It is something so wonderful to see: peace in the family, because they are not destroying anything, not killing anything.

By properly using the natural family planning method, couples are using their bodies to glorify God in the sanctity of family life. I think that if we could bring this method to every country, if our poor people would learn it, there would be more peace, more love in the family between parents and children.

People are afraid of having children.

Children have lost their place in the family.

Children are very lonely, very lonely!

When children come home from school, there is no one to greet them. Then they go back to the streets.

We must find our children again and bring them back home.

Mothers are at the heart of the family. Children need their mothers. If the mother is there, the children will be there, too. For the family to be whole, the children and the mother also need the father to be present in the home.

I think if we can help to bring them all back together we will do a beautiful thing for God.



Recommended Related Insights:

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/contraception%E2%80%99s-dark-fruits
- Marriage, Contraception and Sex from Rome Sweet Home by Scott and Kimberly Hahn 
http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/contraception-marriage-and-sex-from.html
- Pope John Paul II on Natural Family Planning  http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/pope-john-paul-ii-on-natural-family.html

MARRIAGE, CONTRACEPTION AND SEX from Rome Sweet Home by Scott & Kimberly Hahn

MARRIAGE, CONTRACEPTION AND SEX

EXCERPT FROM HOME SWEET HOME

By Scott & Kimberly Hahn, Catholic Converts

My second year of seminary was Kimberly’s first. Something very curious occurred when she took a course on Christian ethics…I asked Kimberly what topic she had chosen.

She said, “Contraception.”

“Contraception?! That was an option last year, but nobody took it. It’s really just a Catholic problem. Why would you want to study contraception?”

“I keep running into questions about birth control when I give talks on abortion. I don’t know why, but I do. So I thought this would be a good chance to find out whether or not the Bible has anything to say about it.”

“Well, if you want to waste your time studying a non-issue, it’s your time.” I was surprised but not really concerned. After all, there really wasn’t a right or wrong way to look at contraception. Little did I know how much her study would affect our lives.

A couple of weeks later a friend stopped me in the hall. “Have you talked to your wife about her study on contraception?”

“Not really.”

“You might want to. She’s come up with some pretty interesting thoughts about it.”

Given the subject matter, I thought I’d better talk to her. I asked Kimberly what she found out that was so interesting about contraception. She shared that before 1930 there had been a unified witness of all Christian churches: contraception was wrong in all circumstances.

I conjectured, “Maybe it’s taken this long to work out the last vestiges of Catholicism.”

She challenged me further. “But do you know what reasons they give to oppose birth control? They have stronger reasons than you might think.”

I had to admit I didn’t know the reasons. She asked me if I would read a book on the subject. She handed me ‘Birth Control and the Marriage Covenant,’ by John Kippley (which has since been revised and retitled ‘Sex and the Marriage Covenant’). I was a specialist in covenant theology…

I looked at it and thought, Liturgical Press? This guy’s a Catholic! A Papist!...I sat down to read the book. I thought, “This isn’t right – it can’t be! This man is making sense. He was showing how marriage is not a contract, involving merely an exchange of goods and services. Rather, marriage is a covenant, involving an exchange of persons.

Kippley’s argument was that every covenant has an act whereby the covenant is enacted and renewed; and that marital act ia a covenant act. When the marriage covenant is renewed, God uses it to give new life. To renew the marital covenant and use of birth control destroy the potential for new life is tantamount to receiving the Eucharist and spitting it on the ground.

Kippley showed that the marital act demonstrates the powerful life-giving love of the covenant in a unique way. All the other covenants show God’s love and transmit God’s love, but it is only in the marital covenant that the love is so real and powerful that it communicates life.

When God made man, male and female, the first command He gave them was to be fruitful and multiply. This was to image God- Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three in one, the Divine Family. So when “two become one” in the covenant of marriage, the “one” they become is so real that nine months later they might have to give it a name! The child embodies their covenant oneness.

I began to see that every time Kimberly and I performed the marital act we were doing something sacred. And every time we thwarted the life-giving power of love through contraception, we were doing something profane. (Treating something sacred in a merely common way profanes it, by definition.)

I was impressed, but I was quiet about being impressed. Kimberly asked me what I thought of the book; I said it was interesting. Then I began to watch her pick off my friends, one at a time – some of the best and the brightest changed their minds!

Then I discovered how all the reformers – Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, and all the rest – held the same position as the Catholic Church on this issue.

I grew disturbed. The Roman Catholic Church stood alone as the only “denomination” in all the world with the courage and integrity to teach this most unpopular truth…

Catholic or not, it was true. So we threw out the contraceptives we were using and began trusting the Lord in a new way with our family plans.

Recommended Related Insights:

- Catholic Answers  http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/contraception%E2%80%99s-dark-fruits
- Pope John Paul II on Natural Family Planning  http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/pope-john-paul-ii-on-natural-family.html
- Blessed Mother Teresa on the Value of Natural Family Planning  http://iamacatholicbyheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/blessed-mother-teresa-on-value-of.html