“To have … To hold … To honor, Natural Family Planning, Supporting God’s gifts of love and life in marriage” is the theme of this year’s National Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, an 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 a general title for ethical, natural, safe and effective methods for both achieving and avoiding pregnancy in marriage. NFP methods teach couples how to observe and interpret the wife’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 25–31, 2021. 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 Diocese of Raleigh Marriage and Family Life ministry joins with the U.S. bishops in highlighting the benefits of NFP as ethical methods to help married couples live God’s design for their marriages.
"Natural Family Planning (NFP) is a way for married couples to live out their vows of free, total, faithful and fruitful love," said Gabriel Hernandez, director of Marriage and Family Life for the Diocese of Raleigh. "We are stewards of all that we have been given, including our fertility, and NFP allows us to learn and understand our fertility, a most precious gift from God. It strengthens marriage by providing opportunity for couples to communicate and prayerfully discern how they are called to be open to God’s will in their marriage."
Want to learn more about the methods of NFP offered in our diocese? Visit the NFP section of our website, which includes a list of local NFP instructors. The USCCB also provides resources for learning NFP through distance learning.
The Catholic Church invites all the faithful to embrace God’s plan for married love by learning more about these beautiful teachings, which support the use of NFP in marriage.
For more about NFP Awareness Week, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
Videos
Beauty in the science behind NFP (Sean and Emily Kennedy)
Join Sean and Emily Kennedy as they describe the beauty in the science behind NFP and how natural family planning allows you to understand and appreciate the gift of your fertility.
Why become a NFP Instructor? (Emily and Sean Kennedy)
Interested in becoming an instructor? Emily Kennedy is a trained instructor in the Billings Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning and shares about how being an instructor is a calling to serve others and walk with them in their journey.
The gift of NFP in our marriage (Caitlin and Thomas Zawistowicz)
Caitlin and Thomas Zawistowicz share about the gift that NFP has been in their marriage and how prayer, discernment, and openness to God’s will have strengthened their marriage.
Joint Responsibility with NFP (Joan and Kyle Mansfield)
Joan and Kyle Mansfield share about their journey of being diagnosed with unexplained infertility, connecting with a NAPRO Physician, and adopting their daughter.