Oh no! Not another nfp question

[mark_a]

Let’s see if I have this correct now:

NFP is sinful when used to limit the number of children a couple may have (except in grave situations: extreme poverty, whatever)

May a couple mutually agree to abstain from sex to limit the number of children without sinning mortally?

 

[mark_a]

Oops! Wrong forum!

 

[StMarkEofE]

mark a:

Let’s see if I have this correct now:

May a couple mutually agree to abstain from sex to limit the number of children without sinning mortally?

Yes, of course. The operative word is Mutual. There have been stories of husband and wives joining monastics and living like brother and sister giving glory to God.

It can however become a sin when one partner denies the marital act from a purely selfish postion. To deny your partner the marriage act for no good reason other than you want nothing to do with the partner can be a sin.

 

[Youngcatholic]

The Church does not specify the situation that warrants the use of NFP. “Grave reasons” can be interpreted in many ways and is up to the couple to determine. Extreme poverty is one circumstance, but I think financial resources in general can be considered, without the couple necessarily being in poverty when deciding to delay children.

I believe it is up to the couple’s prayerful discretion when to have children. It is not a sin to use NFP to space or limit children.

 

[StMarkEofE]

Youngcatholic:

The Church does not specify the situation that warrants the use of NFP. “Grave reasons” can be interpreted in many ways and is up to the couple to determine. Extreme poverty is one circumstance, but I think financial resources in general can be considered, without the couple necessarily being in poverty when deciding to delay children.

I believe it is up to the couple’s prayerful discretion when to have children. It is not a sin to use NFP to space or limit children.

No disagreement here.

 

[mark_a]

Thanks for your help.

Can someone hook me up to something authoritative? Many of the posts I have seen really seem to be opinions.

Without clear teachings on this, it’s really going to be tough to get some Catholics to understand the evils of other serious issues such as abortificant contraception.

I never even heard of NFP until about two years ago.

 

[1ke]

mark a:

Thanks for your help.

Can someone hook me up to something authoritative? Many of the posts I have seen really seem to be opinions.

Without clear teachings on this, it’s really going to be tough to get some Catholics to understand the evils of other serious issues such as abortificant contraception.

I never even heard of NFP until about two years ago.

See the Catechism, under the Sixth Commandment and of course the encyclical Humanae Vitae. Both are authoritative, and both are quite clear.

The term used is not “grave reasons”-- it is “just reasons”. There is a difference.

Abstinence is always a moral means of spacing children. NFP is merely an alternative to complete abstinence that is accomplished by observing a woman’s fertility. It is a morally licit means of spacing children.

The sinfulness is not in the means, it is in the intent if a couple does not have a just reason and a properly formed conscience.