MADISON — “It’s time! Say ‘Yes’ to God’s plan for married love” 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 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 education courses 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).
The dates of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week are July 23 to 29. These dates highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) that articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love, and responsible parenthood.