Educational Resource
NFP: It's Time! Say "Yes" to God's Plan for Married Love (2017)
2017 Natural Family Planning Week Bulletin Insert, It's Time! Say "Yes" to God's Plan for Married Love
How the Methods of Natural Family Planning Can Help Married Couples Live God's Plan for their Marriages
Catholic teaching on love, sex, and “responsible parenthood” is a resounding “YES!” to God’s plan for husband, wife, and marriage. When a man and woman marry, their “Yes” to each other should also include their “Yes” to God’s plan for married love. Why?
God is the creator. He created men and women in his image (Gen 1:27). And, God is the author of marriage as well. God designed married love to be total, fruitful, faithful and exclusive. Marriage was created to mirror God’s own Trinitarian love. Married love therefore rejoices in the other and is respectful of God’s design. This means that husband and wife offer themselves to each other as a gift. There is no “taking” here, just “offering” and “receiving.” There is no exclusion, like denying God, one’s person, or fertility. Anything that counters the meaning and beautiful integrity of the marital act and God’s call for life is avoided (e.g, contraception, sterilization, pornography, IVF, or surrogacy).
God willed that married love involves the whole person, with reason, a well-formed conscience in God’s truth (that’s what Church teaching is!), and fertility. It also means that husband and wife understand that openness to new human life is not an “add on” but an essential element of married life—indeed God himself entrusted husband and wife with the gift of life. This is true whether a couple is fertile or not. Married couples ought to prayerfully discern when God is calling them to bring new life into the world, not treat it in a casual way.
Catholic teaching on the nature of human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love and responsible parenthood reflects God’s loving design. The significance of NFP methods is that they are the tools to help husband and wife live that reality. This is because the methods of NFP respect God’s plan for married love. They do nothing to harm God’s design. That is why the Church supports NFP use in marriage.