As we mark National Natural Family Planning (NFP) Awareness Week from July 20-26th, we are invited to reflect deeply on the hope that springs forth from God’s beautiful design for marriage, love, and life.
This year, NFP Awareness Week marks the 57th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, Saint Paul VI’s prophetic vision of marital love. Saint Paul VI affirms that authentic love is always open to the gift of life and ordered to the good of spouses. Humanae Vitae remains one of the Church’s greatest teaching treasures and is perhaps more relevant today than ever before.
In giving themselves to each other in the covenant of marriage, husbands and wives are called to cooperate with God in his plan for human love and life. Unlike contraception or in vitro fertilization, Natural Family Planning does not separate the procreative aspect of human sexuality from its unitive aspect. Very simply, this means a couple who practices NFP knows that God intends life and love to go together and the couple wants to keep these dimensions always together in their marital relationship. At the same time, NFP promotes open communication between spouses not only in living the truth and meaning of human sexuality but also in making virtuous decisions concerning parenthood, whether this involves welcoming God’s gift of a first child or welcoming other children into the family home.
Natural Family Planning also brings hope to couples, especially those who experience infertility. NFP empowers couples to understand their fertility, address underlying health issues, and grow in communication and trust. Many couples have been blessed with children through NFP after being told they were infertile, discovering that attentive care may reveal treatable conditions and new possibilities. NFP honors God’s design, upholds the dignity of husband and wife, and respects the dignity of children.
Each of us is called to pray and work for a society where love is rightly ordered—where the sanctity of marriage is upheld, where the dignity of every human life is protected, and where families flourish. When spouses collaborate with God’s plan and with each other through trust and sacrifice, their love becomes a powerful witness to the world, fostering a hope that radiates far beyond their own home.
I encourage all couples, especially those preparing for marriage, to learn about the Church’s teachings on Natural Family Planning. In doing so, couples will find freedom, hope, and deeper communion with one other and with God, the author of life and the first to love.
May Our Lord bless all married couples and may our families grow ever stronger as schools of faith, hope and charity, for their own good and the common good of the entire human family.
