Do you or have you used NFP

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The Church May be hypocritical or may not be. That doesn’t change the intrinsic evil of ABC. (Artificial birth control). I’ll leave it up to theologians greater than myself to iron out the perceived hypocrisy. Until then I elevate the marital act in my own marriage to its rightful procreative and unitive action. Without NFP
 
I would change your wording about nfp being taught in schools to 16 year old girls. Basic biology should be taught and a woman should know about cycles and fertility. But natural family planning has no place being taught by a school to 16 year old girls. The unwanted pregnancies alone will be horrible not to mention I don’t want any school, Catholic or not, teaching my kids when where and how to have sex.
 
25 children have always been seen as a very, very large family in every society. And eleven or twelve of the Benincasa children died as infants.
 
My wife and I use NFP. We became very familiar with it when trying to get pregnant. Since the birth of our daughter we’ve continued to use it to space out the next pregnancy.
 
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NFP doesn’t teach when and how to have sex. It teaches two main things: how to track a woman’s cycle and that there are many more ways to express love than just sex. Neither one of those is objectionable on its own and both are very useful to unmarried couples who are rightfully abstaining.
 
No, fertility awareness is a tool with all the information you state. NFP in just the words used natural family planning is the employment of that tool to achieve or avoid pregnancy. Nfp is not just information it’s the employment of that information for a desired goal.
 
I don’t think 16-year old ”couples” should be using or discussing nfp with each other…
 
Exactly what information would you remove from NFP to make it just fertility awareness?
 
A woman should be aware of her cycle and therefore her fertility. The family planning part. Does not need to be involved.
 
When women learn to read and track their cycles, they will be able to identify medical issues, provide their physician with data. Yes, they will know when they are fertile but to assume that information needs to be kept secret because they will just go crazy with unchastity is somewhere between distorted thinking and rash judgement.
 
Mrchatsworth said:
I would change your wording about nfp being taught in schools to 16 year old girls. Basic biology should be taught and a woman should know about cycles and fertility. But natural family planning has no place being taught by a school to 16 year old girls. The unwanted pregnancies alone will be horrible not to mention I don’t want any school, Catholic or not, teaching my kids when where and how to have sex.
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You are showing hostility that is unfounded. How is science and information unacceptable? It’s not ‘when or when not to have sex’, it’s information. It falls under the category of ‘basic biology’ that you agree is necessary.

I didn’t see this chart until university. Do people really have to wait that long to show girls what’s going on? They’ve already had their period for years.

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You realize that ‘teaching my kids when where and how to have sex’ has been taken care of decades ago by liberal thinkers in the school systems, along with abortions that do not require parental consent. NFP information is not the problem.
 
I agree with you wholeheartedly and didn’t suggest otherwise. The biological information of a woman’s cycle should be taught to every girl. Ideally by informed parents but also in a biology class. The use of that information for reproductive decisions should not be taught By schools and when the information IS taught It should be guarded against misunderstandings. 16 year old girls aware of cycles or not are extremely gullible on prom night.
 
Knowing that you haven’t ovulated, and are still fertile, is very useful information.
 
JohnStrachan said:
Let’s be honest, though it’s the only “approved” way of having intercourse according to the church, the intent is the same as using any other means.
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Inaccurate. The Church approves only of marital acts between validly married spouses which are ordered toward procreation.

We spouses vow to accept children from God. If we have a difficulty or just reason not to welcome a child, they would abstain from the marital embrace.

In the same manner that our bodies signal when we are in need of food, God designed women with bodies that provide signals wrt fertility. He gave us reason and intellect to observe those signs.

We are not required as married people to have marital relations every day, we are free to abstain. The reasons to abstain today could be I am tired, I am ill, I need to get up early for a meeting, I’m out of sorts with my spouse, caring for my disabled grandmother or a newborn takes all of my energy, financial issues are bearing down on us and on and on.

Another reason to abstain today is that from observing my body’s signals, I am fertile and this is not a time when we can welcome a child (for a million just reasons).

Fertility awareness is simply data.
 
Mrchatsworth said:
16 year old girls aware of cycles or not are extremely gullible on prom night.
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Seriously, I’m only responding in case a reader out there thinks such low opinion of young women is part of Catholic teaching.

Young women are just as smart as young men, just as able to exhibit virtue and just as likely to be chaste.
 
I agree with your stated post. But giving any sixteen year olds this level of nuance without the caveat to be chaste will result in pregnancies.
 
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Yes… it was certainly tragic.

A friend of a friend is one of 25, if I recall, or maybe 22… in the farmlands, I think, in Colombia. It can be done! And kids can help raise younger kids as well - and even help on the farm too!
 
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We use NFP. We’ve used it to avoid and used it to conceive over our years of marriage. Using NFP and the cohesive theology around it is a large part of what led me to become Catholic.

I’m newly pp so we aren’t using it yet but we’ll soon use it to avoid until our youngest weans. I take several medications in pregnancy to reduce the chances that I’ll miscarry again and our pediatrician has concerns about taking some of those while breastfeeding. So to avoid having to choose between the health and wellbeing of 2 of my children, we’ll avoid for the time being.
 
From the USCCB just today.
“NFP helps a husband and wife determine wether their lovemaking may result in briing a new life into the world,”
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This is what the Bishps think NFP is.
Now, I’m not sure how we as Catholics argue against artificial birth control.
 
You could just teach them about their cycle and the changes that occur and how fertility works
 
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