Faithfully Yours

Details: 20 July 2012

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has established the week of July 22 through July 28 as Natural Family Planning Awareness Week with this theme: "Faithfully Yours."

According to a USCCB press release, the purpose of this national education campaign is "to celebrate God’s design for married love and the gift of life and to raise awareness of Natural Family Planning (NFP) methods. ‘NFP,’ as the U.S. Bishops have written, is supportive of Catholic beliefs about married love because it ‘respects the God-given power to love a new human life into being.’ "

The dates of this annual celebration coincide with the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) "which," the press release says, "articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, conjugal love and responsible parenthood. The dates also mark the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother."

To help celebrate and promote the sacred gift of human sexuality and the Church’s teaching to uphold its dignity, the USCCB has produced many excellent resources: NFP Week poster, prayers, homily notes, bulletin inserts, etc. These can be found on the USCCB NFP Program website: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/marriage-and-family/natural-family-planning/awareness-week/index.cfm.

One of the educational resources provided by the USCCB is a bulletin insert with excerpts from "Married Love and the Gift of Life," a 2006 statement from the U.S. Bishops. The insert provides concise and compelling answers to some critical questions about the Church’s teaching on human sexuality. For example:

"What does the Church teach about married love?"

"Marriage is more than a civil contract; it is a lifelong covenant of love between a man and a woman. It is an intimate partnership in which husbands and wives learn to give and receive love unselfishly, and then teach their children to do so as well. Christian marriage in particular is a "great mystery," a sign of the love between Christ and his Church (Eph 5:32).

"Married love is powerfully embodied in the spouses’ sexual relationship, when they most fully express what it means to become ‘one body’ (Gn 2:24) or ‘one flesh’ (Mk 10:8, Mt 19:6). The Church teaches that the sexual union of husband and wife is meant to express the full meaning of love, its power to bind a couple together and its openness to new life."

"What does this have to do with contraception?"

A husband and wife express their committed love not only with words, but with the language of their bodies. Married love differs from any other love in the world. By its nature, the love of husband and wife is so complete, so ordered to a lifetime of communion with God and each other, that it is open to creating a new human being they will love and care for together.

"Part of God’s gift to husband and wife is this ability in and through their love to cooperate with God’s creative power. Therefore, the mutual gift of fertility is an integral part of the bonding power of marital intercourse. That power to create a new life with God is at the heart of what spouses share with each other.

"Suppressing fertility by using contraception denies part of the inherent meaning of married sexuality and does harm to the couple’s unity. The total giving of oneself, body and soul, to one’s beloved is no time to say: "I give you everything I am—except...." The Church’s teaching is not only about observing a rule, but about preserving that total, mutual gift of two persons in its integrity."

It is a profound tragedy that so many Catholics (and non-Catholics) have such an impoverished understanding of the sacred gift of human sexuality. As the bulletin insert concludes, "The Church’s teaching on marital sexuality is an invitation for men and women—an invitation to let God be God, to receive the gift of God’s love and care, and to let this gift inform and transform us, so we may share that love with each other and with the world."

It is my hope and prayer that NFP Awareness Week will prompt Catholics to take a closer and prayerful look at the truth and meaning of human sexuality. And that in doing so, Catholics will be inspired to live and proclaim this beautiful truth.

You can contact Greg at The Nebraska Catholic Conference, 215 Centennial Mall South Suite 310, Lincoln, NE 68508; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.