Natural Family Planning International

Background. 1.
There is nothing new or revolutionary in any of the sexual immoralities practiced today.  They were existent in Old Testament times and were common in the Roman Empire before Christianity led to the revolutionary rejection of these behaviors as sinful.  What has been revolutionary in the last couple of centuries has been the rejection of biblical and Christian sexual morality by people who still call themselves Christian.

How did we get to this state?  The Apostle John wrote: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 Jn 4:18)  I submit that something like the opposite is also true.  Perfect fear casts out love.  That’s where we are today.  I suggest that we can, for practical purposes, date the start of the modern sexual revolt as 1798.  That was when Thomas Robert Malthus, a 32-year-old economist and Anglican clergyman published An Essay on the Principle of Population.  He alleged that population will grow geometrically while food supplies will grow only arithmetically.  Fear of overpopulation and starvation.  Malthus advocated self-control for family limitation and perhaps late marriage.  Self-control in 1798 would have meant total abstinence until menopause.

In 1823, the neo-Malthusians continued the fear factor but dropped Malthus’ morality and recommended contraception via condoms.  By 1873, the birth control debate came to the United States and the Comstock laws, passed by essentially Protestant legislatures for a basically Protestant country, made illegal the sale and distribution of birth control devices.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant

In his 1995 teaching on prophecy, Fr. Al also noted that prophecy was a means of deliverance.  Moses was the prophet of deliverance from the slavery of Egypt.  Jesus was the prophet of deliverance from the slavery of sin.  I suggest that the teaching of the Church regarding marital chastity is the prophecy of deliverance from the slavery to sexual sin.

Father Al noted further that the general reaction to prophecy is negative.  Certainly that was the case in the Old Testament.  Certainly that was the case among most of the Jewish leadership at the time of Jesus.  And certainly that was the reaction to Humanae Vitae.  And it is also the reaction of most bishops and pastors to the idea that a full course on natural family planning should be a normal part of preparation for marriage.  In 1989 a committee of American bishops published a document on preparation for marriage in which they urged that every engaged couple should be required to attend a full course on NFP, not just a couple hours squeezed into a pre-Cana Day (Faithful to Each Other Forever by NCCB Bishops’ Committee for Pastoral Research & Practices, Dec 1989).  At present, 21 years later, only six dioceses have that requirement.  In western Cincinnati, only Fr. Mark Watkins at St. Lawrence has that requirement.  I understand that perhaps some of the recently ordained associate pastors have that as a personal goal, but it’s not yet a parish policy.

So your request may meet with initial rejection.  And my request to you may meet with initial rejection.  That is all par for the course.

You may rightly ask: Is this necessary?  Aren’t people already well instructed on these things?  And aren’t large numbers of Catholics already practicing NFP?  After all, we see empty pews and the closing of schools and parishes.  Isn’t that due to the selfish use of NFP?  As far as we can tell, less than 5 percent of Catholics are using natural forms of conception regulation.

If 95% of married couples in their fertile years are using unnatural forms of birth control, that means that the typical Catholic parish is very badly affected or infected by slavery to sexual sin.  In turn, that means that you and your pastor have the opportunity to help deliver your parish from that slavery to sin.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant

Purpose of this talk:  I am asking you to ask your pastor to make a full course in natural family planning a normal part of preparation for marriage.

Prophetic requests? Fr. Al Lauer, in his 1995 teaching on prophecy, distinguished between being a prophet of God and being a prophet of a prophet.  I can’t comment on the former, but I think we can say that my request and your request to your pastor are examples of being a prophet of the Popes who are called to be the unique prophet of God throughout the ages.  I call attention right now to Pope John Paul II.  In his landmark 1981 Apostolic Exhortation on the Family, the Pope taught in this way about what we call fertility awareness:

“But the necessary conditions [for understanding and living the moral value and norm of Catholic teaching] also include knowledge of the bodily aspect and the body’s rhythms of fertility.  Accordingly, every effort must be made to render such knowledge accessible to all married people and also to young adults before marriage through clear, timely, and serious instruction and education given by married couples, doctors and experts.  Knowledge must then lead to education in self-control: Hence the absolute necessity for the virtue of chastity and for permanent education in it.” (N. 33.7)

Two sections later he continued:  “With regard to the question of lawful birth regulation, the ecclesial community at the present time must take on the task of instilling conviction and offering practical help to those who wish to live out their parenthood in a truly responsible way.” (n. 35.1)

Every effort must be made.  The Church …must take on the task…  I think that these MUST statements are prophetic not just didactic or academic teachings.

John F. Kippley
Sex and the Marriage Covenant