And finally, someone asked one of us to admit that St. Augustine would not have condoned NFP. I will go out on the limb and say yes and no. He would have, and likely did, embrace charting fertility in order to have
only fertile relations. He believed a couple was *likely *sinning to have relations that didn’t result in conception. (Namely after menopause, and during barrenness and pregnancy.)
His writings do call married couples to celibacy in between conceptions to make sure they weren’t sinning. Due to his playboy past, he could not fathom sex that was not a cure for concupiscence. (In all fairness, the newer translations note that the ECFs and Scripture used the actual term, “lust” far less frequently than was originally thought.) They used the term “cure for sin” more often. Sometimes the sin of lust was implied. Other times it is likely he was addressing a “sinful distraction.” But either way he found that sex that wasn’t begetting was sinful in some way. How many of us here have had relations that were *not *sinful but couldn’t result in a conception due to breastfeeding infertility or something like it?
ME, for one!
Either way, he honestly believed that a couple likely was sinning nearly every time they had relations. Because begetting was necessary, he felt that at that time only, they were not sinning. But he never really addresses how a couple was able to know, though. He did say that because they were married, the sin was not a mortal sin. Many people, in trying to live up to his writings will have baby, after baby, after baby. Even when it is not advisable.
Yes, St Augustine would have called me personally, to total celibacy. Since pregnancy is difficult and I have to have few due to my major health problems, he would have said that any sex was likely sinful. He would have also said I was not even called to marriage. But St Augustine, though doctor of the Church, was not my personal spiritual adviser. I was able to conceive twice and carry to term. With help from family, I can manage my two little ones, even though I am bed-bound often. The door remains open, even now, that God might still see fit to lift my health troubles that make pregnancy dangerous, and having more children to care for, unwise. We will not embrace total celibacy unless and until God calls us there.
God can lift that burden at any time. He *could *call us tomorrow to fertile relations. I am still fertile. I am so thankful for that. I have still been able to chart. We have had so many times of prayerful periodic continence because my *health, *not conception, made relations impossible. Without periodic continence, my children would not be here. If I had followed St. Augustine to the literalistic intent, I would have been called to the single life. Blessed John Paul’s writings said I could be called to marriage. I don’t believe that is a change in teaching, just a better understanding.
As it has been said here before by those wiser than I. “NFP is not an alternative to contraception. It is an alternative to total abstinence.” To those who hold that NFP is immoral, please reply: Based on my circumstances, whom should I follow; an ECF whom we don’t totally understand, or a long list of infallible Popes who declared the practice licit? Thank you for any prayers you can offer that we continue to discern the will of God under this painful burden.
. I would assume that the ovulations were more than 24 hours or so apart, since that in itself would certainly not be new information, but the abstract doesn’t say and I’m not about to buy the article! I wish I knew though.
