Teaching
the truth and understanding it
by Professor Janet E. Smith
Spouses using NFP find that
the method helps them learn to communicate better with each other -- and
abstinence gives them the opportunity to do so. As they learn to communicate
their affection in non-genital ways and as they learn to master their sexual
desires, they find a new liberation in the ability to abstain from sexual
intercourse. Many find that an element
of romance reenters the relationship during the times of abstinence and an
element of excitement accompanies the reuniting.
Self-mastery
They have gained the virtue
of self-mastery since now they can control their sexual desires rather than
being controlled by their sexual desires.
Women using NFP generally feel revered by their husbands since their
husbands do not make them use unhealthy and unpleasant contraceptives. Men
using NFP generally have greater self-respect since they have gained control
over their sexual desires and can now engage in sexual intercourse as an act of
love not as an act of mere sexual urgency. A proof that NFP is good for a
marriage is that whereas in the
Church teaching whys
The Church condemns
contraception not because it wants to deny spouses sexual pleasure but because
it wants to help them find marital happiness and to help them have happy homes
for without these our well being as individuals and as
a society is greatly endangered. Section
18 of Humanae Vitae states:
“. . .it is not
surprising that the Church finds herself a sign of contradiction - just as was
Christ, her Founder. But this is not
reason for the Church to abandon the duty entrusted to her of preaching the
moral law firmly and humbly, both the natural law and the law of the Gospel.
“Since the Church did not
make either of these laws, she cannot change them. She can only be their guardian and
interpreter; thus it would never be right for her to declare as morally
permissible that which is truly not so.
For what is immoral is by its very nature always opposed to the true
good of
‘True civilization’
“By preserving the whole
moral law of marriage, the Church knows that she is supporting the growth of a
true civilization among men.”
In teaching that
contraception is intrinsically immoral, the Church is not imposing a
disciplinary law on Catholics; she is preaching only what nature and the gospel preach. By now
we should have learned - the hard way - that to defy and overindulge our sexual
nature, to go against the laws of nature and God, is to inflict terrible damage
on ourselves as individuals and our society as a whole.
Professor Janet E. Smith is
at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in