natural FAMILY PLANNING:

WHOM DO WE TEACH

by Fr. Joseph Hattie, OMI

Priests for Life Canada, Member of the Board

May 29, 2002

PO Box 43, Cumberland ON K4C 1E5

Tel: (613) 732-3950 Fax: (613) 732-9196

E-mail: priests@priest.com

 

Question 1: Why teach NFP?

This question should be answered in the light of the total vision of man. There are certain facts and principles, therefore, which need to be recalled:

Fact: God has created human beings in His image and likeness, male and female He has created us. He has given us the gift of fertility with its accompanying blessing of parenthood. This embodies the blessing of being co-creators and co-educators with God of new human beings. The responsibility for the gift of fertility is to be good stewards of this gift. We must be prepared to give a good account of our stewardship of this gift to God at the end of our earthly life.

Principle: Every woman and every man has a right to know how to live, as individuals or as a couple, a good stewardship of the gift of fertility. Thus, they need the knowledge necessary to become wise in keeping the gift of fertility healthy, in protecting it from harm, and in resisting the temptation to bury it, instead of developing this talent in harmony with God’s creative intention. Married couples have the right to know the biological laws of human procreation so that they know how to more actively cooperate with God’s creative intention with respect to family size, etc. This right is even more important for those couples who are having difficulty in conceiving a child.

Fact: Natural Family Planning should be taught because, when taught properly, it provides the kind of knowledge and motivation needed for good stewardship of one’s fertility. The Billings Ovulation Method (BOM), for example, provides a simple and very scientific understanding, in particular, of the wonder of a woman’s fertility and the complementarity of a man’s fertility. When taught well, women of all cultures and backgrounds can easily learn, assimilate and put the method into practice. This kind of training will help anyone live a better stewardship of his or her fertility.

Having knowledge of and appreciation for the complementarity of male and female fertility, and knowing when that complementarity could, with God’s help, procreate a child, brings further good into the marriage. For example, a greater respect for each other and for a growing awareness of the need and importance of making mutual decisions about the proper stewardship and development of their gift of fertility. This in turn develops a love for the child and nourishes the communication and love of the couple. Since "grace builds on nature", these goods are things that God’s grace can build on.

Thus, NFP should be taught to anyone who asks and who has reached an age where he or she can understand the knowledge requested, because teaching it is a labour of love that makes further love possible, for individuals, for couples, and for experiencing God in their lives.

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Question 2: Would teaching NFP to an unmarried, cohabiting couple be formal cooperation with evil?

The short answer is NO.

Principle: Fr. Thomas J. O’Donnell, SJ, an eminent moral theologian, defines ‘cooperation’ as participation of more than one person in the same immoral or criminal action. For example, the surgeon who deliberately kills an unborn baby commits a serious immoral act. Is this true also of his assistant who cooperates in the operation? It is formal cooperation in the evil act "whenever one takes part in the immoral act of another while at the same time adopting the evil intention of his associate" (Cf. Medicine and Christian Morality, Second Edition, 1998, Alba House, p. 31).

From this moral principle, one can see that the NFP teacher who teaches an unmarried, cohabiting couple NFP is not "taking part in the immoral act" of premarital sex if the couple decide to later engage in that immoral act. Nor would the teacher have adopted the evil intention of the couple. In fact the NFP teacher’s intention would be to give the couple knowledge that could help them to change their immoral behaviour to moral behaviour. If they are not taught the BOM their immoral behaviour will remain at the same level and is likely to become worse. Therefore, the good NFP teacher who teaches such a couple is not cooperating with evil, but is actually working against it, and encouraging the couple to grow towards a well ordered love.

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Question 3: Should we teach an unmarried, sexually active person who comes to our clinics?

The short answer is YES. Why?

Principle: Let us look at this from the perspective of the woman. She has a right as a woman to a sound knowledge about the gift of her fertility and how to maintain a good stewardship of it. She also has a right to the knowledge about her fertility that will help her to have a greater sense of respect for herself. This knowledge will help God’s grace build on nature, which is necessary if she is to grow in her obedience to God.

Barbara Ward has expressed this truth in the following way: "It is with, and not contrary to nature, that man must act if he is to obey the God of nature". NFP helps a person to act more in harmony with nature and this in turn gives the Holy Spirit more to work with in bringing the person (or a couple) towards conversion to God’s Will in all areas of their lives. For example, some years ago, Dr. Hanna Klaus working near Washington DC with a group of sexually active teenage girls, decided to teach them the Billings Ovulation Method. As a result of the truth they learned about themselves and their fertility, a number of them stopped being sexually active and decided to wait until marriage. This experience encouraged Dr. Klaus to develop a special program for high school students, called Teen Star. The Drs. Billings have had similar experiences.

One can see from these kinds of experiences that teaching NFP in such situations is not cooperating with evil, but working to overcome it. NFP helps to decrease the evil in which these people are immersed, and through the truth it introduces into the person’s life, God has more of an opportunity to work for the good of the person. For example: a couple engaging in pre-marital sex would ordinarily use some form of contraception like an IUD or the Pill. Both of these can cause conditions in the womb, which prevent a fertilized ovum from implanting in the lining of the womb. This would cause an early abortion. Learning to use NFP would remove the possibility of this great evil from the couple’s relationship. Also, if as a result of learning NFP, the couple stopped using contraception then they have ceased doing something which is intrinsically evil. God’s grace will be freer to help free their minds and hearts from the evil of the contraceptive mentality, which had imprisoned their spirits.

Removing the intrinsic evil of contraception from a couple’s relationship helps the woman to grow in her own sense of self worth. This in turn leads some women to realize that they are being sexually used and gives them the courage to break off the relationship and start a new life. The periodic abstinence of NFP will cause the man to reevaluate his reasons for being in the relationship. Is it because of selfishness? Or to build true love? If it is to build true love, leaning the BOM will help to build a better understanding of true love and enhance the possibility of a happy marriage built on that truth. Moral growth takes time, and on our part, patience and prayer. Our patience and prayer will be sustained if we do not lose sight of the Law of Gradualness (Familiaris Consortio # 34), by which God gradually draws human beings into full harmony with His Will. He respects our freedom, and attracts us to His love without violating that freedom. NFP teachers are cooperators in the Law of Gradualness.

As a conclusion to the answers to these three questions, let me quote from Dr. John Billings. "Every woman on earth is entitled to the knowledge of her own body, including the knowledge that the Creator has intended her to understand. When she does understand there is often seen the effect that proves that truth leads people to God".

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Question 4: Is teaching NFP in China cooperating with an oppressive regime and therefore wrong?

The short answer is NO.

Natural family planning needs to be taught in China to help overcome the oppressive effects which contraception and abortion have on Chinese women, their health, ability to love, and on their marriage and families, and on the children aborted in the womb. It helps firstly by teaching couples how to be free from the physical, emotional, moral and spiritual evils associated with the IUD, the Pill, direct sterilization and compulsory abortion. These have been the main means of family planning imposed on Chinese couples after their first child. These (intrinsically evil) methods also deny the dignity of the husband and wife since they deny that each is totally unique, irreplaceable, and irreducible to any man or woman, since each is made in the image and likeness of God. Teaching NFP in China actually helps to remove these evils and puts new good into marriages and families. This makes it possible for people to live more in harmony with Natural Law, which in turn makes it possible to accomplish further good, such as: better communication for the couple, joy in the child instead of fear of the child, improved health and confidence for the wife, helping many who had difficulty in achieving a pregnancy to achieve one.

Teaching NFP in China helps to overcome the culture of death created by contraceptive practices such as the IUD, the Pill and abortion. This is illustrated by a study published in 2000, entitled, Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Natural Fertility Regulation Programme in China, which reached 3 conclusions:

The Billings Ovulation Method (BOM) is well accepted by Chinese women of different cultures and economic backgrounds; illiteracy and lower reproductive tract infection are not incompatible with the use of the method.

The use-effectiveness of the BOM is much superior to that of Tcu22Oc, one of the most popular IUDs used in China.

The BOM is effective in achieving pregnancy in Chinese infertile couples.

With respect to number 2: The ‘IUD is considered the most common form of family planning used by Chinese couples (some) would claim it is as high as 90%). Verbal reports received by the Drs. Billings, from a number of the BOM Training Centres that participated in this study indicated that when couples are given the choice between the IUD and the BOM, over fifty percent chose the BOM. That change in itself would remove a lot of evil from a great number of marriages, and the society of which they are basic cells, and gradually replace the evil with a great deal of love. The good of this love strengthens the families in their ability to become better and to do further good by sharing this blessing with the whole world, so that it can serve God in His task of building with, and for mankind, a culture of life and a civilization of love.

Pope John Paul II has said: "As the family goes, so goes the world". It is my humble opinion that teaching NFP in China is preparing the groundwork for a better and freer future for the Chinese people. Modern methods of NFP are a great blessing from God. Therefore, let’s get on with the work of teaching NFP to the whole world so that the harvest may be richer when the Lord comes.

In conclusion please remember that NFP is not meant to be the saviour of the world, but it can make a big contribution towards the work of grace. I quote an astute observation made by an Irish doctor several years ago while speaking to BOM teachers. "The challenge is the need for your service - not the present or past demand for it, but the unreached, unsupported, untaught, untouched couples whose lives need to be renewed by your input".

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Contact your diocesan office for further information on Natural Family Planning in your area.

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Fr. Joseph Hattie, OMI

Fr. Hattie, known for his work in Natural Family Planning and promoting moral values within marriage, draws on his doctorate in Theology, the Holy Father, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

This pamphlet compliments Fr. Hattie’s work in the area of Natural Family Planning. At its writing, Fr. Hattie, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate (OMI), is Consultant and Resource Person for Marriage and Family Preparation Development for the Archdiocese of Halifax, Antigonish and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. He is also Spiritual Director for the Board of WOOMB Canada (World Organization of the Ovulation Method Billings - Canada) as well as a board member of Priests for Life Canada.

Previously, Fr. Hattie obtained extensive experience in the area of marriage and natural family planning as the director of the Office of Marriage and Family formation for the Archdiocese of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and has helped thousands of couples prepare for marriage and the blessing and responsibility of having children. In this role, he has written and published a marriage and family preparation course used widely today. He has a doctorate in the Theology of Marriage and Family from Lateran University in Rome.

Other publications by Fr. Hattie include

Totally Yours, commentary and reflections on Humanae Vitae.

Informed Conscience: Walking with God, a clear guide to properly forming the conscience, resulting in truthful living with oneself and those around us.

These publications are available from Priests for Life Canada.

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