By Kevin Aldrich
Catholic Stand
This is the fifth in a six-part series on Humanae Vitae, Pope Paul VI’s profound and heroic 1968 encyclical. The series’ introduction is here. The question of “responsible parenthood” as the Church defines it is taken up here. Questions about the unitive and procreative meanings of sex and why they should not be separated are discussed here. Questions of conscience are taken uphere. This post will examine why NFP and contraception are so different, even though they kind of look the same.
For the sake of simplicity, natural family planning (NFP) is any of the methods by which married couples can determine when the wife is potentially fertile, so that they can practice periodic continence (abstinence) if they don’t desire pregnancy. Under contraception, I will include anything the couple does before, during, or after the marital act to attempt to render it infertile.
WHAT KINDA LOOKS THE SAME WHEN YOU COMPARE NFP AND CONTRACEPTION?
What is the same when comparing the use of NFP and contraception is that in both cases the couple has made a decision to try to avoid pregnancy. As we discussed in the last column, the couple ought to have made a decision in conscience that they have a serious (just) reason to postpone having a child at this time.
Kevin Aldrich lives with his wife and seven children in Springfield, IL. He writes screenplays, TV pilots, novels, non-fiction books and articles, and English and religion curricula. He blogs for the Year of Faith at http://www.doctrinalhomilyoutlines.com/.
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