Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the theory that if a couple observes the natural rhythm of a woman's cycle and refrains from physical relations during her "fertile" period, they can avoid producing a child. This method is called natural only because no artificial (unnatural) means are employed at the time of intercourse to prevent conception. However in actuality, NFP is anything but "natural."

Married couples know well enough what is natural and what is not. But for more than fifty years the members of the Catholic Hierarchy seem not to have had anyone speak to them about the natural reproductive cycle of woman-and they have been dealing with NFP which relates so closely to it! This cycle affects her emotionally as well as physiologically. Indeed, it is exactly during her fertile period that she often requires the comfort of her husband, and most desires his affection and embrace. Surely we see God's obvious intention behind this.

It was probably as a teenager that I received my first inkling regarding the special times of the female cycle. A hairdresser explained to me that a woman's best "permanent" results during the fertile period when all the oils and glands of the body are in harmony Evidence of this can be seen by the complexion, sweetness, and beauty of many wives during this time, and their desire to be loved by their husbands then. About the mood which follows this one, however, I'm sure many men have had plenty to say! ("What has happened to that sweet, agreeable disposition? Those shining, smiling eyes? That willingness to be cuddled? That ability to handle little Johnny's problem with the same ease as last week? Why do you hate me now when before I was the greatest?")

Most teachers of NFP have not given the complete impact of family planning much thought, and people are asked to come to meetings about it "to learn that NFP is within God's natural order of creation." From my own experience, and from the true spirit of the Church on the matter, I know that this is very bad. For married couples are supposed to give as little thought as possible to the worries of probable conception or not, and leave the family planning totally to God. As any childless couple can tell you, if He does not want you to conceive, it just does not happen.

Man is different from animal because man has an immortal soul-it will never die. The attributes of that soul are intellect and free will. When God created the world, He established a natural order of things and embedded in all animate nature a rhythm of pulse. At the time of creation, God placed man over both animate and inanimate creatures. But although mankind is put in this superior position, God still set very definite boundaries which man is not to violate: The Ten Commandments, and the laws He gives us through His Church. Yet even before these laws existed, there was His Natural Law. Written in the heart of every man, it also is not to be broken - for He is God the all - knowing Creator, and man is but His creature.

Now, with the teaching of NFP, we take the perfection of our reproductive powers (the cycle of fertility and infertility) and through one of the attributes of our soul (the intellect), we reason that if we use this nature in reverse, we can produce a negative effect. Or rather, we can prevent a positive one. Our intellect presents a scheme which tells us we can have the pleasure of the act of reproduction while avoiding the responsibility of it. At this point the other spiritual faculty (the will) comes into play: We can accept this scheme or reject it. Now to one who professes faith in an all-knowing God, what basis is used to justify adherence to such a thing? For by using NFP we reverse God's order and nature's rhythms, satisfy our physical needs to some extent, and attempt to avoid the responsibility of child bearing and rearing. Maybe we are feeling inadequate or unwilling to bear that responsibility or maybe we are inclined to imagine our burden too heavy. Therefore, we perhaps assume the right to do something to keep these things from getting worse and beyond our control.

Rather, we must go to Christ's words-and they say we are either with God or else we are against Him (Lk. 11:23). Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you" (Mt. 11:28). In other words, "Trust in Me to find a way for you; trust Me to supply for your inadequacies; I made you, I called you to this work, I understand and will help you; I will make your burden easy and your yoke light, if you strive to serve Me as you ought in this state of matrimony to which I assigned you and to which you have agreed. If you please Me while you work out this vocation, it will earn you Heaven. And I will always do My part-if you do yours."

Regarding the philosophy we must use as our approach to life, Jesus says as well, "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mt. 6:33). If we do our share, He will supply the rest. Christ tells us that it is to be "as the heathen" to over-worry about material goods. We are not to dishonor His Heavenly Father Who created the world, set its limits, and called us to serve Him in the matrimonial state through which He intends to raise up those souls He desires to have in existence. Woe be to us if we get in the way of this intention-if we get in the way of this holy creativity! A thwarted God is an angry God. He will take married couples to account for those children of which they have deprived Him. To put it differently: If you don't want children God's way, then do not get married.

We are free to accept God's truths or reject them. But to have peace, these truths must be accepted. His yoke, too, we must take on (i.e., our state of life and His laws regarding it). We know that His laws can be demanding. So Jesus assures us of His graces, His powerful help to carry us through and to overcome our natural fears. Consider Saint Paul as an example. Before his conversion, he was no less zealous in his hatred of Christians, than he was afterward zealous in his love of them. For with his surrender to faith, Paul the Apostle became one who was even granted the power to perform miracles-due to his being United with God in His Holy Will.

There is not one place in the Gospels where Christ tells us we are on our own. What kind of God would He be Who would leave His mortal subjects alone to attempt to discern the future and analyze their own abilities and potential? And this is a temptation of married couples. He tells us that we are free to follow Him or not-but each way has its consequences of good and evil. All throughout the Bible He urges us to trust Him, and promises to charge our natural life with His supernatural power if necessary, even as He did Saint Paul's. Any form of family planning not only keeps other people from coming into the world, but it stunts our own spiritual growth because it limits all to the finite mind. And because of this lack of faith, we reject the adventure into the infinite which challenges the soul with joyful excitement and hope. When the Apostles were confirmed at Pentecost, did not the power of the Holy Ghost change them? Are we to think God would be less present to us these days, if we cooperate with this grace of the Sacraments?

Each of us have the constant help with the Sacraments of the Holy Eucharist and of Penance. And for those who are married, the Sacrament of Matrimony is not an empty symbol but a definite source of the necessary grace we need to fulfill this state of life all throughout its duration. If we cooperate as we should, our marriages would help sanctify us and make us saints. Indeed, each time we properly use our marriage rights, there is an increase of grace in our souls! (Think of this, as opposed to the sinful effect physical relations have upon those souls making use of them outside the bounds of holy matrimony) So we see that all things flourish, even our spiritual life in marriage, through abandonment to His Will. The promise of God that He will never leave us on our own can never be broken-for among the things God cannot do is to break a promise.

Consider: Grass can be no more than grass on its own. However, if grass is eaten by a cow, it then becomes part of that COW. A cow is only a cow until it is consumed by man and becomes part of man. Man, in turn, cannot be any more than a human being unless his life is taken up into the life of Christ. Then he participates in the very Divine Life of God.

It is a taste of being Adam-before the Fall.

If Catholics were growing spiritually, they would be more awed by God's Omnipotence. They would indeed become more humble and obedient toward His Divine Majesty; they would lose themselves in Him. However, the opposite is happening. Surrounded by modern paganism, and with the recent changes brought in by the New Church and the questionable power of its sacraments, most Catholics are pulling away from Him and are building up their own egotism. They are becoming the object of their own adoration. In other words, they are losing themselves to themselves. Many if not most married Catholics, even rush head high, head long and headstrong into the use of artificial birth control and abortion-often with nary a conscience-qualm, and rarely with any of our modern priests preaching or counseling against the matter. It is evident that Catholics are not growing and maturing spiritually, only humanly and in the effects of Original Sin. It is not in building ourselves up that we obtain God's help and power, but in bending ourselves low in subjection to His perfect Will.

Birth control is fundamentally wrong because it interferes with the primary purpose of marriage: The begetting of children. The souls of these children are then supposed to be raised up to God through the Church; the mutual comfort and support of the marriage partners is the secondary purpose only. As we have seen, NFP also rejects the Providence of God in His Natural Law. For contraceptive planning and observing are methods of doing just that. Are we to suppose that God would establish the laws of nature, and then give us a way of voiding those laws "naturally"-thereby solving the problem that the laws present? Jesus says we are to trust the Father completely, because He loves us and will only give us what is for our good (Lk. 11: 11-13). And the Christian maxim is that He never gives us a cross that we cannot bear. He never tempts us beyond our strength.

Having taught CCD for many years, I became very aware of the changes in the morals of society and the "catch-words" modernists use to appeal to man's innate pride. One example is teaching that the Rhythm method is the "intelligent" approach to the temptation of artificial birth control because "the Church approves it." If sin does indeed come from the heart as Our Lord teaches (Mt. 15:18-20), and the intention of that heart is to frustrate the essential purpose of the act of procreation, then what is the difference between artificial and "natural" contraception? One is accomplished with a physical device, the other through a time schedule. But each begins with the same "desire of the heart" to avoid the responsibility of the act. How can the disposition of the heart be right in one case and wrong in the other?

As we have said, the advocates of NFP argue that the Rhythm method is valid and "natural" in that the marital act is completed in a natural and proper way, and no artificial means of contraception (i.e., condoms, diaphragms, etc.) are employed. Yet the same may be said of the "Pill"-and both methods claim a 98% "success" rate. We might mention here that the Pill is an abortifacient - that is, it does not "prevent conception" (as is the impression its promoters like to give us). Rather, it induces the miscarriage of an already existing conceived fetus! It is a tool of murder, as surely as is any other form of abortion.

In his "right-to-life" film, Dr. Wilkie tells us that "semen of itself is not life-giving; the ovum of itself is not life-giving; and only when the two are allowed to meet is there life-giving."

The National Council of Catholic Bishops' statement about marriage tells us that, "the life-giving and the love-giving cannot be separated."

As we have seen, Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Humanae Vitae teaches "that each and every marriage act must remain open to the transmission of life."

These are all facts consistent with the teaching of Christ. How then can NFP proponents instruct God's Catholic people? They make it their business to impart to couples: 1) how to prevent, through careful monthly calculations, the fertilization of the female ovum; 2) how to have the love-giving but avoid the life-giving through the contrivance of timing; 3) that each and every act must remain open to the transmission of life (as the Natural Law tells us it must). Yet their instruction consists of teaching couples how to calculate the very time when they may perform the marriage act with the greatest degree of certainty that there will be no transmission of life. Is not all this usurping a dominion over life-giving powers not belonging to man? Who is supposed to be deceived-God or man? Is it any wonder that intelligent and informed non-Catholics find the approach being fostered by the Catholic Church's representatives ridiculous, jaded, and distorted, as well as hypocritical? For they see in it no difference from the Pill in intent or effectiveness-it still is birth control.

Concerning Pope Paul VI's statement that each and every act must remain open to the transmission of life, NFP advocates tell us:

A couple who practices NFP has already inherently accepted the child, should it come along. It is in this sense that the couple must remain open to life while not using contraceptives, and yet allowed to use the sterile times which God Himself has provided.

This is changing God's Law-that the first purpose of marriage is procreation-into a lie, and they are worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator! After all, why are couples using the sterile times alone? Isn't it to serve their creature desires? This is that lust of which the Angel Raphael spoke to Tobias (Tob, 6:17). To associate this thinking with the unitive meaning of marriage is fallacious, for constant use of the sterile times is against the nature of a woman, and the effects are disastrous as the Cavanaugh Report reveals (about which more later). In this thinking NFP proves itself to be in error. And note the "smooth" language used by the NFP'ers ("which God himself has provided") in order to divert one to error. A "pious" coating indeed!

Cardinal Wright observed that, "The separation of childbearing and love has in turn allowed man to turn his wife into a mistress until her ability to satisfy his lust wanes." Is it any wonder that our families are in the terrible state they are with this mentality prevailing for the last fifty years? If a couple has in their hearts the acceptance of a child from their actions, why go through all the bother of observing and checking? Even Pope Paul VI said that the act itself must remain open to the transmission of life. This means nothing can be deliberately done to prevent the meeting of the sperm and ovum-timing included, as well as material methods.

"Thou shall love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength" (Mk. 12:30). To advance in intellectual and social growth, and vet neglect this FIRST and GREATEST COMMANDMENT of the Creator, is declaring that man is independent from God. God is not rejecting man, nor is He allowing him to be led astray. Man makes the decision himself to reject God. And in the case of birth control, man rejects the fact that sexual intercourse is primarily for procreation - with the result of that act being completely God's domain. Man is rejecting the Providence of God by not trusting that God will take care of whatever He creates. Or else man rejects God Himself because complete marital submission to the Divine Will may mean sacrifice in the form of physical pain, emotional stress, giving of self and time, financial burdens, social obligations and all the rest. Especially it means the sacrifice of trusting that God will provide for the future-a virtue utterly contrary to the modern materialistic spirit and need for absolute security/control over one's life. Mankind so wants to make earth its Heaven and place of ease, when the world is largely to be a place of test, toil and suffering-only the proving ground for Heavenly glory. God's Will here is our test, and our job during life is to see that we are fulfilling His Will and living out His Law.

We ask the advocates of NFP how their approach fulfills God Is life within us and preserves true faith in His Providence? We are here questioning the value -- and validity -- of the principle set forth by this group. Christ Himself told us that those who would seduce us will come to us as wolves "in the clothing of sheep" (Mt. 7:15). Christ came as a sign of contradiction (Lk. 2:34), by which He meant that His teaching and moral code would oppose, and be opposed by, the world. How does NFP oppose the evils of contraception, being nothing but a non-artificial means of the same birth control? The world is not concerned about pleasing God its Creator and doing its duty, only about some ever safer and more reliable way of birth control (and discovering how to increase the merely pleasurable side of sexual relations).

The years of this century have been years of change, and as each year passes, the changes accelerate along with their consequences. Advocates of NFP claim that their method has been accepted by the Popes since 1930 (those same Popes who have eventually allowed the wholesale changes we now see rampant through the Church). This thinking has infected four generations of even conservative Catholics. It has contributed to the moral laxity within the modern Church, and surely to the undermining of marriages and family life. Why are homosexuality, bestiality and every form of perversion, now a problem among the young? It is because the primary purpose of sex-procreation-has been set aside, and the secondary purpose has been made primary, therefore putting man's pleasure before God's Law. When pleasure is allowed to be primary in sex who dares set the limits? The abolishing of morals is the result, as Saint Paul tells us (Rom. 26 & 27).

Is not this the time for us to stand up to the world, and show forth the light of Christian morality? Christ's way is not to find a variant to the world's immorality We must condemn all forms of birth control-as well as the immoral mentality to which they have given rise with all its pagan consequences.

Animal life instinctively reproduces according to the Natural Law because animals do not have the intelligence or free will to go against it, and their nature will not allow copulation at the infertile time. In the vegetable kingdom, fertilization takes place spontaneously. Therefore, all nature gives honor and glory to God by following the Natural Law as God made it.

Man is God's special creation to whom He gave intelligence and free will. The child of God uses his human functions as did Jesus, by being born in human form and living as a human being-and even His human nature was subject to the spiritual. This is the focal point of those baptized into the Fatherhood of God. We have God's solemn promise that He will guide us in all the problems we encounter through our human drives, if we will only subject our will and actions first of all to Him. Our Lord very definitely gave us the way when He told us that we must become as little children and trust the Father. Again He makes reference to this Fatherhood when He says, 'Ask the Father anything in My Name." If we keep ourselves worthy of His blessings, all else will follow.

Love takes sacrifice, and this sacrifice can require the courage to stand before the intellectuals of the world and say that we believe that God is our Father. We therefore believe that He will take care of and guide His children who trust in this guidance, and He will prepare them for eternity. Look at the covenant God made with man. God promised man that He will always take care of man if man will keep Him as his God. Now the devil would like to see that covenant become null and void, because fidelity on man's part would destroy the devil's efforts to lead souls to hell.

God works with souls as is necessary for each individual soul's salvation, and so we say that "God hath no way" This means that He does not follow a definite pattern with each soul. But the devil's way is easy to detect as he constantly incites man to defy God's Will, causing man to lose divine grace. We recognize this style of Satan.

If man wants to be faithful to God and keep God's covenant, any thought of birth control or family limitation is forbidden. If man truly loves God, he trusts Him and gives to God His place of honor in man's life. Occasionally you hear even traditional Catholics object to leaving themselves open to all the children God wills to send them, They may say something like, "You've got to have some morals"-as though putting their marital selves entirely in God's hands is giving way to so much impure activity, or is merely akin to animal-like abandonment or behavior. Such is their concept or experience of the nobility and holiness of Christian parenthood. Open marital relations, rather, is a practice of love of God and charity to one's spouse. And it is obedience to God's Law. (If it wasn't that children may well mark the path of such "marital abandonment," might any of these people be that concerned with "having some morals?")

What is God's place? It is in filial trust that we worship and serve God Whose place is above us. Now Our Blessed Mother trusted Him in her Fiat, at the time of the Annunciation. As Don Bosco explains in his Madonna:

Be it done to me according to Thy Word. With this utterance, Mary surrendered body and soul to the Will of God, a Will that she did not understand, but which she accepted. By this acceptance she gave every fibre of her being to her vocation as Mother of God; she accepted, without thinking of herself, but trusting in God. And this first Fiat was the beginning of a whole lifetime of submission to the Will of God.

Where would we be if Our Lady did not say "Fiat" to God's Will? And look at what happened because she did. Do you think she was ever sorry afterwards? We, too, have our chance to imitate the Mother of God in her submission and abandonment, and it pleases God that we do so. What holy developments will come our way as well!

Fidelity to God is accepting the fact that He is God and we are His creatures. Although we can either accept or reject the Father, He tells those who accept Him that He will take charge of their lives and grant them peace (through a clear conscience). He also will give them happiness in this life and assurance of everlasting happiness in the next. As the Sacred Heart told St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, "Fear nothing, and let Me do with you and in you whatever I will."