This year the week of Monday, July 25 is Natural Family Planning Awareness Aeek. Our Diocesan Family Life office facilitates Natural Family Planning (NFP) classes to educate all engaged and married couples about God’s plan for responsible parenthood. Natural Family Planning is the regulation of births through periodic abstinence from the sexual union based on the women’s physical signs of fertility. It is accepted by the Catholic Church as the method to regulate births and also the way to know when it is the best time to conceive a baby. The marital embrace is a remarkable gift from God so that we can participate with Him in the creation of life. St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body speaks about marital love between a husband and wife and NFP works in conjunction with the Pope’s teaching. Theology of the Body teaches that sexual intercourse is the full-bodied sign language of God’s love. Contraception says that God is not welcome in the marital embrace. It deliberately alters a healthy functioning part of the woman’s body. You normally would not ask a doctor to make a part of your body stop working.
Fertility Awareness Based Methods (FABM) have a number of advantages for couples. While divorce rates in the U.S. are unfortunately high, the divorce rates for couples that practice NFP are much lower. The statistics are lower because NFP couples must communicate and the woman is not impacted by the negative effects of hormonal contraception. Couples practicing NFP may also be more receptive to God’s influence in their marriage and realize He is the creator of all life. Couples that use NFP not only find that it improves their communication but also adds courtship elements and they find other ways to express their love for each other. Real love wants the best for the other person. If you want more information on NFP Classes in English or Spanish visit amarillodiocese.org/nfp or give us a call at 806-414-1059.
Another Pro-Life issue in our great nation is that some members of Congress want taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions for poor women. We need to provide mothers resources to care for their child, not to kill their child. Our tax money would be better spent by supporting women in crisis pregnancies and struggling new mothers rather than paying to end the lives of their children. Please call or email your Senators and Representative to save the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits millions of taxpayer dollars being used to pay for abortions in the U.S. and overseas. Please tell Congress to preserve the Hyde Amendment. Go online to notaxpayerabortion.com.
Pray for an end to abortion.
James Schulte is director of the Family Life Office for the Diocese of Amarillo.