Replies

Serious reason "quietly "dropped

Question from Kari Beckman on 08-18-2003:

Dear Fr. Hogan'

In an article dated 7/30/03 you stated at the end that the Church as "quietly" dropped the serious reason for using NFP, could you please sight your source as I can not find anything to that affect. This is of great concern to me as a Faithful Catholic who out of obiedence to the teaching on marriage has been open to life, I have read Humani Vitae as well as parts of the Theology of the Body and they both refer to NFP as only being used in grave reason, this recently as been brought up by a friend of mine and if true that serious reason is not needed, then many of us are in error of what the Church teaches and need to be corrected. I too thought that this teaching could never be changed as it is a matter of faith and morals. Please answer quickly as this has me greatly concerned about the state of our Church. Pax Christi, Kari Beckman

Answer by Fr. Richard Hogan - NFP Outreach on 08-19-2003:

Perhpas I should not have said "quietly dropped" without qualifying the statement more. They have been "dropped" as a PREREQUISITE for "having recourse to the infertile periods." See the FAQ on this site regarding this whole issue.

To summarize: NFP is the study of the language of the body. The body is the manifestation of the person--our bodies reveal who we are and so they can be said to speak a langauge. The most profound language the body speaks is the language of love because the body is the sign, expression of an image of God, a person. An image of God is called to do what God does, i.e., love, and express those acts in and through the body. So the most profound language the body speaks is the language of love. And the body speaks this language through the sexual powers. NFP is precisely the study of these sexual powers. So, NFP is reading the language of the body.

When this language is understood, i.e., when NFP is known properly, both the husband and the wife come to understand the awesome nature of God's gift of life to each of them and the incredible gift the other is. In other words, the body reveals the person which in turn reveals God because the body reveals an image of God and when an image of God is revealed, something of God is revealed. This newfound respect and awe leads to gratitude, then to love (because having received such an awesome gift, naturally one is grateful and wants to respond) and to generosity (because love is always generous).

With this generosity, NFP couples usually desperately WANT to give of themselves, and to give this awesome gift of life to new human persons. They understand in a profound way the privilege of procreation and want to share in this activity with God. They will only postpone a pregnancy for the most weighty of reasons. Thus, NFP leads couples to "serious reasons" to postpone a pregnancy.

In practical terms, if a couple understands NFP properly, uses it properly, has their life in order (taking care of family obligations, Church obligations, work, social responsibilities, community responsibilities, etc.) then if they decide to postpone a pregnancy, the Church ASSUMES that they have sufficient reasons.

It is not so much that the reasons are not needed, it is that they come as a RESULT of the proper use of NFP and are not required as a PREREQUISITE.

John Paul does not mention serious reasons as a prerequisite for using NFP in his Apostolic Exhortation on the Family.

For more information, see the FAQ on this site on this point.

Thanks for writing.

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NFP and serious reasons plus HPR article Question from Bill Foley on 08-10-2003:

Father Hogan:

You do wonderful work with your forum. Deo Gratias!

The July 2003 issue of homiletic & pastoral review has an article on page 24 and following, How to Preach against Contraception, by Frederick Marks. If you get a chance, would you please critique this for me; I think that the author appears to be negative toward natural family planning. One of the statements is: "NFP advocacy, of its very nature, tends to undercut some of the best arguments against artificial contraception."

On the other hand, I do not believe that the magisterium has abandoned its teaching that couples must have a serious reason to practice NFP. Ramon Garcia de Haro quotes Pope John Paul II in his Marriage and the Family in the Documents of the Magisterium on page 359. The remark was taken from the Pope's Address to the Participants in the International Meeting on the Theme "The Natural Regulation of Fertility: The Authentic Alternative," December 11, 1992. The quotation was reported in L'Osservatore Romano (December 12, 1992). The Popes words are: "The Church recognizes that there can be objective motives for limiting or spacing births, but she insists, in accord with Humanae Vitae, that couples must have serious reasons in order licitly to refrain from the use of marriage during fertile days and to make use of it during infertile periods in order to express their love and to safeguard their mutual fidelity."

Bill Foley

Answer by Fr. Richard Hogan - NFP Outreach on 08-12-2003: It is not that serious reasons are not required. It is that instead of the Church requiring serious reasons as a PREREQUISITE of using NFP, it has come to understand that the proper and informed use of NFP builds these reasons.

If a newly married couple begins to use NFP with a general attitude which is selfish and even contraceptive, they will either abandon NFP for a better contraceptive or they will change their general attitude. A couple using NFP in an informed and proper way knows that each and every conjugal act is "open to the transmission of life." Thus, each act is holy and without sin. Their specific attitude each time they use the privileges of marriage differs from their general more selfish and contraceptive general mentality. But people cannot continue to act one way in specific acts and another way with regard to general attitudes. If the general attitude "trumps" the specific, they will abandon NFP. If, more likely, the specific attitude changes the general attitude, then they will become generous regarding life and when they do need to limit their family, they will only do it because it is the only thing to do in their situation (serious reasons). NFP helps couples read the language of the body--helps them understand their great dignity and value, see that same dignity and value in others, especially their children, and in turn leads them to genuine love which always and in every case includes life. This is why so many couples may begin using NFP with the intent on having a small family and then, a few years later, they see a friend that they have not seen in a while, and the friend remarks on their four children--all single births. Now, not everyone is called to have a larger family--but the point is that NFP leads to true love which is life-giving and to an abundantly generous love.

I do not usually see the HPR and so I cannot comment on the article you cite, but I profoundly disagree with the line you cite from the article. I doubt that the author understands the Theology of the Body very well. According to this wonderful teaching of Pope John Paul II, one of the key differences between NFP and contraception is that contraception in each and every case alters the body in some way. NFP does not do this and this fact alone points to a radical difference between NFP and contraception.

Thanks for writing.

*************************************** Padre Pio

Question from Richard Hogan on 07-04-2003: Did Padre Pio ever express his opinions on contraception to Pope Paul VI?

Answer by Fr. Richard Hogan - NFP Outreach on 07-04-2003:

I asked this question of myself so that I could post the following letter written by Padre Pio to Pope Paul VI. This was at the suggestion of a correspondent.

Here is the text of the letter:

Your Holiness: Availing myself of Your Holiness' meeting with the Capitular Fathers, I unite myself in spirit with my Brothers, and in a spirit of faith, love and obedience to the greatness of Him whom you represent on earth, offer my respectful homage to Your August Person, humbly kneeling at Your feet. The Capuchin Order has always been among the first in their love, fidelity and reverence for the Holy See. I pray the Lord that its members remain ever thus, continuing their tradition of seriousness and religious asceticism evangelical poverty, faithful observance of the Rule and Constitutions, renewing themselves in vigorous living and deep interior spirit—always ready, at the least gesture from Your Holiness, to go forward at once to assist the Church in her needs. I know that Your heart suffers much these days on account of the happenings in the Church: for peace in the world, for the great needs of its peoples; but above all, for the lack of obedience of some, even Catholics, to the lofty teachings which You, assisted by the Holy Spirit and in the name of God, have given us. I offer Your Holiness my daily prayers and sufferings, the insignificant but sincere offering of the least of your sons, asking the Lord to comfort you with His grace to continue along the direct yet often burdensome way—in defense of those eternal truths which can never change with the times. In the name of my spiritual sons and of the "Praying Groups" I thank Your Holiness for the clear and decisive words You have spoken in the recent encyclical, "Humanae Vitae", and I reaffirm my own faith and my unconditional obedience to Your inspired directives. May God grant truth to triumph, and, may pence be given to His Church, tranquility to the people of the earth, and health and prosperity to Your Holiness, so that when these disturbing clouds pass over, the Reign of God may triumph in all hearts, through the Apostolic Works of the Supreme Shepherd of all Christians. Prostrate at Your feet, I beg you to bless me, my Brothers in religion, my spiritual sons, the "Praying Groups", all the sick—that we may faithfully fulfill the good works done in the Name of Jesus and under your protection. Your Holiness' most humble servant, PADRE PIO, Capuchin San Giovanni Rotondo, 12th September, 1968."

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Answer by Fr. Richard Hogan - NFP Outreach on 07-01-2003:

The requirement of grave reasons (or serious reasons) has been quietly dropped as a PRE-REQUISITE for having recourse to the infertile times of the feminine cycle. Grave or serious reasons was the language of the Church that asked couples to exercise the supternatural virtue of prudence, i.e., to judge as God would judge, in determining the size of their families. Over the last thirty or so years, the Church has learned through the experience of couples that NFP, when properly taught and exercised, actually BUILDS virtue.

Answer by Fr. Richard Hogan - NFP Outreach on 11-21-2002:

What the Church taught before Vatican II was that couples needed to be conscious of sufficient reasons BEFORE they used only the infertile periods. Trhough the experience of couples actually using the modern NFP methods, the Church has discovered something about NFP and married couples not known before, i.e., that the proper practice (informed) of NFP BUILDS virtue. In other words, if a couple is practicing their faith, teaching their children the faith, fulfilling their responsibilities to family and friends and work (job), praying together regularly, then, if they decide to postpone a pregnancy, the Church presumes that they will have a good reason BECAUSE the proper practice of NFP leads to virtue and generosity in love. So instead of requiring virtue as a prerequisite (serious reasons as was required by Pius XI), not the Church knows that NFP builds virtue.

Fr. Hogan is saying:

when NFP is known properly, both the husband and the wife come to understand the awesome nature of God's gift of life to each of them and the incredible gift the other is. In other words, the body reveals the person which in turn reveals God because the body reveals an image of God and when an image of God is revealed, something of God is revealed. This newfound respect and awe leads to gratitude, then to love (because having received such an awesome gift, naturally one is grateful and wants to respond) and to generosity (because love is always generous). ,/i>

With this generosity, NFP couples usually desperately WANT to give of themselves, and to give this awesome gift of life to new human persons. They understand in a profound way the privilege of procreation and want to share in this activity with God. They will only postpone a pregnancy for the most weighty of reasons. Thus, NFP leads couples to "serious reasons" to postpone a pregnancy.

It is not so much that the reasons are not needed, it is that they come as a RESULT of the proper use of NFP and are not required as a PREREQUISITE.

I have found no Church documents that would verify that these statements are anything more than Fr. hogan's own personal beliefs and pious opinions. Do any of you know of any Church documents that support his thesis here, or is Fr. Hogan out on a limb by himself making these assertions?

This is my own opinion:

It appears that this is his personal theological opinion. I have never seen an official Church document that maintains or supports Fr. Hogan's position here. This is the first time I have even seen it argued this way!

Therefore, I disagree with his central thesis; i.e., its OK to teach NFP void of the requirements of "grave reasons" in the hopes that in the future virtue will develop in the context of which the proper grave reasons will ipso facto exist in that coupls' marriage. This is "doing evil that good may come of it" in my opinion.

I will be doing some further research over the coming days to ascertain whether this is an emerging consensus among NFP supporters or simply the pious and personal opinion of one sole priest.

I suspect it is the latter.

Any comments?