NATURAL FAMLY PLANNING IS “FREE BIRTH CONTROL”
Patch-free
Latex-free
Shot-free
Pill-free
Mutilation-free
Guilt-free
Pollution-free
Hassle-free
Formula-free
Adapted from the business card of Steve and Ann Craig, Corpus Christi NFPI.
Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor, 2008
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, 2008, classic 1974 edition
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood, 2005
New Online NFP Manual and La Leche League’s Influence Upon Our Work
The free online manual, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach, has been revised and improved for self-instruction and for use as a teaching tool in the classroom.
It has been expanded from 4 to 8 chapters and from 100 pages to 156 pages. One long chapter was divided into three. The two new additions are a chapter with several persons giving a “Witness” and a chapter for “Getting Started.” In this latter chapter, practice charts are provided so a beginner can get some experience with the method. We encourage all learners to download the entire manual on 3-hole paper for insertion into a binder. If beginners have questions after reading the manual, they can contact us via the website. We strongly encourage our readers to read Chapter 7 on “Witness.”
Ecclesiastical approval: On January 20, 2009, Fr. Joseph Binzer, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, said: “In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant my permission to publish Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach. Permission to Publish is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Permission to Publish agree with the contents, opinions or statements expressed.”
LLLI Book Evaluation Committee
Sheila’s two new breastfeeding books were approved by La Leche League International’s Book Evaluation Committee. These books are The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor (2008) and the classic edition (1974) of Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing (2008). Best of all, The Seven Standards was the featured article in the La Leche League magazine, New Beginnings (Issue 5, 2008), which came out this December.
I am very grateful to La Leche League because they have always promoted breastfeeding’s natural child spacing through my books.
In 1971 when we started an NFP organization, La Leche League was our role model. As a LLL leader, I saw how effective La Leche League was in teaching and supporting breastfeeding mothers through a series of four meetings, a manual, volunteers, and mother-to-mother support. So we copied the LLL model. It worked for La Leche League and it worked for us. We also had a series of four meetings (three meetings currently), a manual, and volunteer NFP-teaching couples supporting and teaching other couples. And today the donation for the NFPI course is modest. Most are around the $70 range for a series of 3 classes. This donation goes toward the materials needed for instruction (manual, thermometer and charts) and toward the organization. The teachers are still volunteers. This work is very rewarding. If a couple is interested in this apostolate, they should contact us via our website.
Sheila Kippley
www.nfpandmore.org
Commencement Address at Franciscan University of Steubenville by John F. Kippley, Dec. 13, 2008: Part 4
A fourth misconception is that if NFP teachers and materials mix religion with NFP methodology they will turn off non-Catholics. When this question was raised in an NFP email group, a woman on the list identified herself as a former atheist. She had health problems with the Pill, so a Catholic friend gave her our book on natural family planning, a book that clearly mixes faith and science. She told the email group that the religious element did not turn her off even as an atheist. After she and her husband taught themselves and began to practice NFP, she kept reading the marriage-covenant material in our NFP book as her bedtime reading because she was a truth seeker. One night she had a life changing experience. Something happened. She said that one minute she was an atheist and no amount of argumentation could change her. The next moment she was a believer, and no amount of argumentation could persuade her otherwise. Today she and her family are practicing Catholics.
A fundamentalist gentleman from Texas and his Baptist wife were practicing NFP because she did not want to take the Pill. One evening while waiting for dinner, he read something in our NFP magazine that helped him to see that Natural Family Planning is more than just fertility awareness. Then they recognized that only the Catholic Church was still teaching the Christian Tradition on birth control, so they felt obliged to give the Church a good look. The husband wrote shortly after Easter some years ago to tell me that he and his wife and their five children had all entered into full communion with the Catholic Church.
The point of this digression about Natural Family Planning is that when there is a healthy integration of faith and science, NFP instruction becomes part of the evangelization work of the Church.
Some of you are looking forward to getting married very soon; others will marry later. I suggest that you get familiar with the website of NFP International some months before the big day. There we have a Natural Family Planning manual and charts you can download—-all for free. Every young couple should understand these things, regardless of how they use this knowledge. Natural Family Planning is not rocket science.
As you will learn throughout life, the greatest satisfactions in life come from helping others. That’s why I invite you to become part of the NFP movement in some way—-by regular prayer for chastity, by promoting or teaching Natural Family Planning, or by transmitting the teaching of Humanae Vitae as opportunities arise.
Let me summarize my comments. You have earned your diplomas, for which we heartily congratulate you. You are prepared to work. Be also prepared for those times when things don’t work out as you had hoped. If and when you encounter tough times, be hopeful. At all times, be grateful. Lastly, please pray and work to build a culture of life.
Again, we want to thank Father Henry and his associates for inviting us to your Commencement exercises. We honor you today as graduates. May God bless your every endeavor.
Next Week: Free self-instruction