MADISON — “Natural Family Planning: Love, Mercy, Life, Opening the Heart of Marriage” is the theme of this year’s Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, a national educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to celebrate God’s vision for marriage and promote the methods of Natural Family Planning.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for the safe, natural, and effective methods of both achieving and avoiding pregnancy. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the woman’s signs of fertility and infertility.
In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, NFP methods “respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them, and favor the education of an authentic freedom” (CCC, no. 2370).Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is July 24 to 30. These dates highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25), which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love, and responsible parenthood.
The Diocese of Madison Marriage & Family Program’s NFP Coordinator, Vicki Braun, speaks of the benefits of NFP, “What a gift NFP has been for me and my husband, Rich! Rich learned to respect me in both my fertile and infertile times.
“We were able to discuss our desire to hope for or postpone a pregnancy. Above all, he participated in the daily fertility observations, making NFP a true mutual method of family planning.”
Each parish will be receiving materials to promote and teach Natural Family Planning during NFP Awareness Week. To learn more about the methods of NFP offered in the diocese, visit www.madisondiocese.org/Ministry/MarriageandFamily/NaturalFamilyPlanning/NFPMethods.aspx
For a schedule of local NFP classes, visit www.madisondiocese.org/Ministry/MarriageandFamily/NaturalFamilyPlanning/UpcomingClasses.aspx or call 608-821-3134.
To learn NFP in the comfort of your home, contact Vicki Braun at nfp@straphael.org