St. Joseph's Catholic Church

11730 Old Saint Augustine Road Jacksonville, Florida 32258 (904) 268-5422

Respect-Life Committee 

Natural Family Planning

Ever since Pope Paul VI wrote the encyclical, Humanae Vitae, contraception has become one of the most controversial and one of the most disobeyed teachings of the Catholic Church. Few Catholics take this teaching seriously and even fewer Catholics ever bother to become informed on the reasons for the Church’s standing on contraception. What many Catholics are failing to learn is that marriage is sacred and the sexual act is a holy bonding of the husband and the wife – and with God. Contraception is a deliberate exclusion of God from the marital act and degrades sex into an act of mere lustful gratification. Read the Humanae Vitae article posted on this website.

  
What is NFP?

Natural Family Planning is the only Church-approved method of spacing children within a marriage.  Natural Family Planning uses the charting of a woman’s God given signs of fertility to determine her fertile time during the month.  The couple then prayerfully with the Lord and one another determines if the Lord is calling them to be open to the gift of
a child that month, or if they have sufficiently serious reasons to postpone a pregnancy by a brief period of abstinence.  The most common signs of fertility charted are the woman’s morning waking or basal temperature and her cervical mucus observations made throughout the day. NFP is 99% effective in postponing pregnancy (the same effectiveness rate as the Pill) and is also used by many couples of low fertility to
achieve pregnancy.  For more information about NFP you can look at the website for the Couple to Couple League www.ccli.org

How does NFP differ from Contraception?

Many couples believe that Natural Family Planning is the same as contraception. This misconception about NFP is very prevalent and unfortunate especially within the church.  The Pill works in 3 ways, by preventing ovulation, impeding sperm migration and by preventing implantation of  a fertilized egg (otherwise known as acting as an abortifacient).  A new life can actually be conceived and prevented from implanting.  The new life is then discarded in the woman’s next menstrual cycle.  NFP is first natural, it is also safe and just as effective as the pill (the same 99% effectiveness, there are no 100% methods of birth control...not even vasectomies or tubal ligations.  The only 100% methods are complete abstinence or removal of a woman’s ovaries or a mans testicles.).  NFP does not put chemicals within the woman’s body and can immediately be reversed to achieve pregnancy.  With contraception three months must go by before trying to conceive so the chemicals have time to leave the woman’s body.  The church teaches that with NFP the couple is not placing a barrier between themselves, their marriage and fertility. They are open to one another and even when they must postpone pregnancy
for a sufficiently serious reason, God is still open and welcome in their marriage.  With contraception a barrier is placed between the couple that says "I love you but not your fertility."  Please look at the website for the Couple to Couple League at www.ccli.org for more information. 

Assumption Catholic Church

Natural Family Planning Classes