Celebrating NFP Awareness Week!

NFP Awareness Week Begins July 23rd, 2017

“It’s Time! Say ‘Yes’ to God’s Plan for Married Love” is the theme of this year’s Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, a national educational campaign of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to celebrate God’s vision for marriage and promote the methods of Natural Family Planning.

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for the safe, natural and effective methods of both achieving and avoiding pregnancy. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the woman’s signs of fertility and infertility. In the words of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, NFP methods “respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them and favor the education of an authentic freedom.” (CCC, no. 2370)

The dates of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week are: July 23rd – 29th, 2017. These dates highlight the anniversary of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, marriage, conjugal love and responsible parenthood

The Family Life Apostolate joins with the U.S. bishops in highlighting the benefits of NFP throughout this week.

“Jesus calls us to serve others. Marriage and parenthood are ways we can immediately apply this call in our lives. NFP has led me to be more open to life, more aware of God’s design for intimacy in marriage, more dependent on Him to fulfill these plans. It has strengthened my relationship with my husband, given me personal insight and it has given our children life!”  (Dawn Farias, “How Natural Family Planning Changed my Life,” available at: www.usccb.org/nfp/what-is-nfp/couples-stories/upload/How-Natural-Family-Planning-has-Changed-My-Life-2.pdf)

Want to learn more about the methods of NFP offered in the archdiocese? Click here or visit the NFP section of the USCCB website at: http://www.usccb.org/nfp/what-is-nfp/.

Don’t have time to attend an in-person class? Learn NFP in the comfort of your home by contacting one of the NFP providers listed at: http://www.usccb.org/nfp/nfp-distance-learning.cfm

The Catholic Church invites all the faithful to embrace God’s plan for married love. Learn more about these beautiful teachings which support the use of NFP in marriage at: http://www.usccb.org/nfp/catholic-teaching.