Posts Tagged ‘Other Items’

Published NFP Studies

Updated Review of Published NFP Studies

New Method of FA/NFP (Potential and Actual)

  1. Freundl, G., Frank-Herrmann, P., Brown, S., & Blackwell, L. (2014). A new method to detect significant basal body temperature changes during a woman’s menstrual cycle. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care : The Official Journal of the European Society of Contraception, 19(5), 392-400.
  2. Mulcaire-Jones, G., Fehring, R. J., Bradshaw, M., Brower, K., Lubega, G., & Lubega, P. (2016). Couple beads: An integrated method of natural family planning. The Linacre Quarterly, 83(1), 69-82.
  3. Soler, F., & Barranco-Castillo, E. (2010). The symptothermal (double check) method: An efficient natural method of family planning. The European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care : The Official Journal of the European Society of Contraception, 15(5), 379-80; author reply 381-2.
  4. Ryder, R. E. (1993). “Natural family planning”: Effective birth control supported by the catholic church. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.), 307(6906), 723-726.

Method Specific Efficacy Studies

  1. Bouchard, T., Fehring, R. J., & Schneider, M. (2013). Efficacy of a new postpartum transition protocol for avoiding pregnancy. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine : JABFM, 26(1), 35-44.
  2. Fehring, R. J., & Mu, Q. (2014). Cohort efficacy study of natural family planning among perimenopause age women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing : JOGNN, 43(3), 351-358.
  3. Fehring, R. J., & Schneider, M. (2017). Effectiveness of a natural family planning service program. MCN.the American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 42(1), 43-49.
  4. Fehring, R. J., Schneider, M., & Barron, M. L. (2008). Efficacy of the marquette method of natural family planning. MCN.the American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 33(6), 348-354
  5. Fehring, R. J., Schneider, M., Barron, M. L., & Pruszynski, J. (2013). Influence of motivation on the efficacy of natural family planning. MCN.the American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 38(6), 352-358.
  6. Warniment, C. B., & Hansen, K. (2012). Is natural family planning a highly effective method of birth control? yes: Natural family planning is highly effective and fulfilling. American Family Physician, 86(10), 1-2.

Accuracy of Fertility (Ovulation) Indicators

  1. Ecochard, R., Leiva, R., Bouchard, T., Boehringer, H., Direito, A., Mariani, A., et al. (2013). Use of urinary pregnanediol 3-glucuronide to confirm ovulation. Steroids, 78(10), 1035-1040.
  2. Fehring, R. J., Raviele, K., & Schneider, M. (2004). A comparison of the fertile phase as determined by the clearplan easy fertility monitor and self-assessment of cervical mucus. Contraception, 69(1), 9-14.

Psychological Dynamics, Attitudes, and Characteristics of NFP/FA Users

  1. Berendt Emil., & Leonard, Judith. (2006). Profiles of responders to a natural family planning awareness campaign. Catholic Social Science Review, 11, 31-46.
  2. Fehring, R. J. (2015). The influence of contraception, abortion, and natural family planning on divorce rates as found in the 2006-2010 national survey of family growth. The Linacre Quarterly, 82(3), 273-282.
  3. Smith, A. D., & Smith, J. L. (2014). billingsMentor: Adapting natural family planning to information technology and relieving the user of unnecessary tasks. The Linacre Quarterly, 81(3), 219-238.

Probabilities of Pregnancy

  1. Frank-Herrmann, P., Jacobs, C., Jenetzky, E., Gnoth, C., Pyper, C., Baur, S., et al. (2017). Natural conception rates in subfertile couples following fertility awareness training. Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics, 295(4), 1015-1024.

Time to Pregnancy/ Timing Intercourse

  1. Ecochard, R., Duterque, O., Leiva, R., Bouchard, T., & Vigil, P. (2015). Self-identification of the clinical fertile window and the ovulation period. Fertility and Sterility, 103(5), 1319-25.e3.

Menstrual Cycle Physiology/Medical Tx

  1. Cai, B., Dunson, D. B., & Stanford, J. B. (2010). Dynamic model for multivariate markers of fecundability. Biometrics, 66(3), 905-913.
  2. Hilgers, T. W., Keefe, C. E., & Pakiz, K. A. (2015). The use of isomolecular progesterone in the support of pregnancy and fetal safety. Issues in Law & Medicine, 30(2), 159-168.
  3. Vigil, P., Salgado, A. M., & Cortes, M. E. (2012). Ultrastructural interaction between spermatozoon and human oviductal cells in vitro. Journal of Electron Microscopy, 61(2), 123-126.

Twelve-Year Review (2000-2012) of Published NFP Studies

By Richard J. Fehring, PhD, RN, FAAN—Marquette University

New Method of FA/NFP (Potential and Actual)

  1. Arevalo, M., Jennings, V., and Sinai, I. Efficacy of a new method of family planning: the Standard Day Method. Contraception. 65 (2002): 333-338.
  2. Arevalo M, Jennings V, Nikula M, Sinai I. Efficacy of the new TwoDay Method of family planning. Fertility and Sterility. 2004;82:885-892.
  3. Blackwell, L.F., Brown, J.B., & Vigil, P., et al. Hormonal monitoring of ovarian activity using the Ovarian Monitor, Part I. Validation of home and laboratory results obtained duringovulatory cycles by comparison with radioimmunoassay. Steriods. 2003;68:465-476.
  4. Burkhart, M.C., de Mazariegos, L., Salazar, S., & Lamprecht, V.M. Effectiveness of a standard-rule method of calendar rhythm among Mayan couples in Guatemala. International Family Planning Perspectives. 26 (August, 2000):131-136.
  5. Brosens I, Hernalsteen P, Devos A, Cloke B, Brosens JJ. Self-assessment of the cervical pupil sign as a new fertility-awareness method. Fertility and Sterility, 2009 Mar;91(3):937-9.
  6. Dunlop, A.L., Allen, A.D., & Frank, E. Involving the male partner for interpreting the basal body temperature graph. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 98(2001):133-138.
  7. Dunlap AL, Schultz R, Frank E. Interpretation of the BBT chart: using the “Gap” technique compared to the Coverline technique. Contraception, 2005;71:188- 192.
  8. Fehring RJ, Schneider M, Raviele K, Barron ML. Efficacy of cervical mucus observations plus electronic hormonal fertility monitoring as a method of natural family planning. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecological, and Neonatal Nursing, 2007;36:152-160.
  9. Hadziomerovic D, Moeller KT, Lict P, Hein A, Veitenhansel S, Kusmitsch M, Wildt L. The biphasic pattern of end-expiratory carbon dioxide pressure: a method for identification of the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Fertility and Sterility, 2008 Sep;90(3):731-6.
  10. Wang, J., Usala,S.J. and O’Brien-Usala, F. et al., “The fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle are signaled by cervical-vaginal fluid die swell functions. The Endocrinologist, (2009) 19(6): 291297.

Method Specific Efficacy Studies

  1. Arevalo, M., Jennings, V., and Sinai, I. Efficacy of a new method of family planning: the Standard Day Method. Contraception. 65 (2002): 333-338.
  2. Arevalo M, Jennings V, Nikula M, Sinai I. Efficacy of the new TwoDay Method of family planning. Fertility and Sterility. 2004;82:885-892.
  3. Burkhart, M.C., de Mazariegos, L., Salazar, S., & Lamprecht, V.M. Effectiveness of a standard-rule method of calendar rhythm among Mayan couples in Guatemala. International Family Planning Perspectives. 26 (August, 2000):131-136.
  4. Fehring RJ, Schneider M, Raviele K, Barron ML. Efficacy of cervical mucus observations plus electronic hormonal fertility monitoring as a method of natural family planning. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecological, and Neonatal Nursing, 2007;36:152-160.
  5. Fehring, R. J., M. Schneider M, and M.L. Barron. “Efficacy of the Marquette method of natural family planning,” MCN, American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing 33 (2008):348-54.
  6. Fehring R., Schneider, M., Barron, M.L. and K. Raviele. “Cohort comparison of two fertility awareness methods of family planning,” Journal of Reproductive Medicine. 2009 Mar;54(3):165-70.
  7. Fehring, R, Schneider, M, & Raviele, K. (2011). Pilot Evaluation of an Internet-based Natural Family Planning Education and Service Program, Journal of Obstetrics, Gynecology,and Neonatal Nursing. 40(3):281-91.
  8. Frank-Hermann P, Gnoth C, Baure S, Strowitski T, Freundl G. Determination of the fertile window: reproductive competence of women – European cycle databases. Gynecology Endocrinology, 2005; 20: 305- 312.
  9. Frank-Herrmann P, Heil J, Gnoth C, Toledo E, Baur S, Pyper C, Jenetzky E, Strowitzki T, Freundl G. The effectiveness of a fertility awareness based method to avoid pregnancy in relation to a couple’s sexual behavior during the fertile time: a prospective longitudinal study. Human Reproduction, 2007; 22:1310-1319.
  10. Jennings, V. & Sinai, I. Further analysis of the theoretical effectiveness of the TwoDay method of family planning. Contraception. 64(2001):149-153.
  11. I. Sinai, R. I. Lundgren, and J.N. Gribble. “Continued use of the Standard Days Method.” Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care, (2011): published ahead of print.

Review Articles Efficacy Studies

  1. Che, Y., Cleland, J.G. and Mohamed, M.A. Periodic abstinence in developing countries: an assessment of failure rates and consequences. Contraception. 2004;69:15-21.
  2. Grimes DA, Gallo MF, Grigorieva V, Nanda K, Schulz KF. Fertility awareness-based methods for contraception. Cochrane Database Systematic Review, 2004 Oct 18;(4):CD004860. Review. PMID: 15495128
  3. Grimes DA, Gallo MF, Grigorieva V, Nanda K, Schulz KF. Fertility awareness-based methods for contraception: systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Contraception, 2005;72:85-90.
  4. Leite IC, Gupta N. Assessing regional differences in contraceptive discontinuation, failure and switching in Brazil. Reproductive Health, 2007;4:6. (BioMed Central)
  5. Mansour, D, and P. Inki, and K. Gemzell-Danielsson. Efficacy of contraceptive methods: A review of the literature. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care 15 (2010): 4-16.
  6. Moreau C, Cleland K, Trussell J. Contraceptive discontinuation attributed to method dissatisfaction in the United States. Contraception, 2007, Oct;76(4):267- 72.
  7. Moreau C, Trussell J, Rodriquez G, Bajos N, Bouyer J. Contraceptive failure in France: results from a population-based survey. Human Reproduction, 2007;22:2422-2427.
  8. Mosher,WD and J. Jones. Use of contraception in the United States: 1982-2008. Vital and Health Statistics Series 23, Number 29 (2010): 1-77.
  9. Ranjit, N., Bankole, A., Darroch, J.E. & Singh, S. Contraceptive failure in the first two years of use: differences across socioeconomic subgroups. Family Planning Perspectives. 33 (2001):19-27.
  10. Trussell J. Contraceptive failure in the United States. Contraception. 2004;70:89-96.
  11. Wiebe ER, Trussell J. Contraceptive failure related to estimated cycle day of conception related to the start of the last bleeding episode. Contraception 2009; 79: 178-181.

Accuracy of Fertility (Ovulation) Indicators

  1. Alliende ME, Cabezon C, Figueroa H, Kottmann C. Cervicovaginal fluid changes to detect ovulation accurately. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2005;193:71-75.
  2. Attar, E., Gokdemirel, S., Seraroglu, H., & Coskun, A. Natural contraception using the Billings ovulation method. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care. 2002;7:96-99.
  3. Behre, H.M., Kuhlage, J., & Gassner, C. , et al. Prediction of ovulation by urinary hormone measurements with the home use Clearplan Fertility Monitor: comparison with transvaginal ultrasound scans and serum hormone measurements. Human Reproduction. 12 (2000):2478-2482.
  4. Blackwell, L.F., Brown, J.B., & Vigil, P., et al. Hormonal monitoring of ovarian activity using the Ovarian Monitor, Part I. Validation of home and laboratory results obtained duringovulatory cycles by comparison with radioimmunoassay. Steriods. 2003;68:465-476.
  5. Brosens I, Hernalsteen P, Devos A, Cloke B, Brosens JJ. Self-assessment of the cervical pupil sign as a new fertility-awareness method. Fertility and Sterility, 2009 Mar;91(3):937-9.
  6. Ecochard, R. Boehringer, H., Rabilloud, M., & Marret, H. Chronological aspects of ultrasonic, hormonal, and other indirect indices of ovulation. British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 108 (2001): 822-829.
  7. Fehring, R. Accuracy of the peak day of cervical mucus as a biological marker of fertility. Contraception. (2002): 836-47.
  8. Fehring, R., Raviele, K. and Schneider, M. A comparison of the fertile phase as determined by the Clearplan Easy Fertility Monitor and self-assessment of cervical mucus. Contraception. 2004;69:9-14.
  9. Freundl, G., Godehardt, E., Kern, P.A., Frank-Hermann, P., Koubenec H.J. and Gnoth, Ch.Estimated maximum failure rates of cycle monitors using daily conception probabilities inthe menstrual cycle. Human Reproduction. 2003:18(2):2628-2633.
  10. Hadziomerovic D, Moeller KT, Lict P, Hein A, Veitenhansel S, Kusmitsch M, Wildt L. The biphasic pattern of end-expiratory carbon dioxide pressure: a method for identification of the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Fertility and Sterility, 2008 Sep;90(3):731-6.
  11. Scarpa B, Dunson DB, Colombo B. Cervical mucus secretions on the day of intercourse: an accurate marker of highly fertile days. European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, 2006; 125:72-78.
  12. Wang, J., Usala,S.J. and O’Brien-Usala, F. et al., “The fertile and infertile phases of the menstrual cycle are signaled by cervical-vaginal fluid die swell functions. The Endocrinologist, (2009) 19(6): 291297.
  13. Blackwell1, P. Vigil, B. Gross, C. d’Arcangues, D.G. Cooke, and J. B. Brown. “Monitoring of ovarian activity by measurement of urinary excretion rates of estrone glucuronide and pregnanediol glucuronide using the Ovarian Monitor, Part II: reliability of home testing.” Human Reproduction. Advance Access published November 29, 2011).

Special Circumstances/Breastfeeding/Post OC

  1. Arevalo, M., Jennings, V. and Sinai, I. Application of simple fertility awareness-based methods of family planning to breastfeeding women. Fertility and Sterility. 2003;80:1241-1248.
  2. Gnoth, C., Frank-Hermann, P., & Schmoll, A., et al. Cycle characteristics after discontinuation of oral contraceptives. Gynecological Endocrinology. 2002;16:307-317.
  3. Fehring RJ, Barron ML, Schneider M. Protocol for determining fertility while breastfeeding and not in cycles. Fertility and Sterility, 2005;84:805-807.
  4. Tomaselli, G.A., Guida, M., & Palomba, S, et al. Using complete breast-feeding and lactational amenorrhoea as birth spacing methods. Contraception. 61 (April, 2000):253-257.
  5. Bouchard, T, Schneider, M & Fehring, R. “Efficacy of a New Postpartum Transition Protocol for Avoiding Pregnancy“ Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Accepted for publication 8/12.
  6. I. Sinai and J. Cachan, “A bridge for postpartum women to Standard Days Method, I. Developing the bridge,” Contraception (2012): e-published ahead of print.
  7. I. Sinai, and J. Cachan, “A bridge for postpartum women to Standard Days Method, II. Efficacy study,” Contraception (2012): e-published ahead of print.

Psychological Dynamics, Attitudes, and Characteristics of NFP/FA Users

  1. Audu, B.M., Yahya, S.J., & Bassi, A. Knowledge, attitude and practice of natural family planning methods in a population with poor utilization of modern contraceptives. Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2006;6:555-560.
  2. den Tonkelaar, I. & Oddens, B.J. Factors influencing women’s satisfaction with birth control methods. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care. 6(2001):153-158.
  3. Gribble JN, Lundgren RI, Velasquez C, Anastasi EE. Being strategic about contraceptive introduction: the experience of the Standard Days Method Contraception. 2008 Mar;77(3):147-54.
  4. Janssen, C.J.M., & van Lunsen, R.H.W. Profile and opinions of the female Persona user in The Netherlands. The European Journal of Contraception and Reproductive Health Care. 5 (2000):141-146.
  5. Leonard CJ, Chavira W, Coonrod DV, Hart KW, Bay RC. Survey of attitudes regarding natural family planning in an urban Hispanic population. Contraception, 2006;74:313-317.
  6. Mikolajczyk, R.T., Stanford, J.B., & Rauchfuss, M. Factors influencing the choice to use modern natural family planning. Contraception. 2003;67:253-258.
  7. Moreau C, Cleland K, Trussell J. Contraceptive discontinuation attributed to method dissatisfaction in the United States. Contraception, 2007, Oct;76(4):267-72.
  8. Mosher WD, Martinez GM, Chandra A, Abma J, Willson SJ. Use of contraception and use of family planning services in the United States: 1982-2002. Advance Data from Vital and Health Statistics. CDC Number 350, December 10, 2004.
  9. Research Group on Methods for the Natural Regulation of Fertility. Periodic abstinence and calendar method use in Hungary, Peru, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Contraception. 64 (2001): 209-215.
  10. Severy, L.J. Acceptability of home monitoring as an aid to conception. The Journal of International Medical Research. 29(2001,Suppl 1):28A-34A.
  11. Severy, L.H., Klein, C.T., & McNulty, J. Acceptability of personal hormone monitoring for contraception: longitudinal and contextual variables. The Journal of Social Psychology. 142 (2002): 87-96.
  12. Severy LJ, Robison J, Findley-Klein C, McNulty J. Acceptability of a home monitor used to aid in conception: psychological factors and couple dynamics. Contraception, 2006;73:65-71.
  13. Severy LJ, Robison J, Findley-Klein C, McNulty J. Acceptability of a home monitor used to aid in conception: psychological factors and couple dynamics. Contraception, 2006;73:65-71.
  14. Sinai I, Lundgren R, Arévalo M, Jennings V. Fertility awareness-based methods of family planning: predictors of correct use. International Family Planning Perspectives, 2006;32:94-100.
  15. Stanford, J.B., & Smith, K.R. Characteristics of women associated with continuing instruction in the Creighton Model Fertility Care System. Contraception. 61 (February, 2000):121-129.
  16. Tommaselli, G.A., Guida, M., Palomba, S. et al., The importance of user compliance on the effectiveness of natural family planning programs. Gynecological Endocrinology. 14 (2000):81-89.
  17. VandeVusse, L., Hanson, L., Fehring, R.J. Couples’ views of the effects of natural family planning on marital dynamics. Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 35 (2003):171-176.

Attitudes of Health Professionals to FA/NFP

  1. Fehring, R.J., Hanson, L., & Stanford, J.B. Nursemidwives’ knowledge and promotion of lactational amenorrhea and other natural family planning methods for child spacing. Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health. 46 (Mar/April, 2001):68-73.
  2. Steinauer J, La Rochelle F, Rowh M, Backus L, Sandahl Y, Foster A. First impressions: What are preclinical medical students in the US and Canada learning about sexual and reproductive health. Contraception, 2009 Jul;80(1):74-80.

Probabilities of Pregnancy

  1. Colombo B, Mion A, Passarin K, Scarpa B. Cervical mucus symptom and daily fecundability: first results from a new database. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 2006; 15:161-180.
  2. Dunson, D.B., Sinai, I., & Colombo, B. The relationship between cervical secretions and the daily probabilities of pregnancy: effectiveness of the TwoDay Algorithm. Human Reproduction. 16(2001):2278-2282.
  3. Keulers MJ, Hamilton CJCM, Franx A, Evers JLH, Bots RSGM. The length of the fertile window is associated with the chance of spontaneously conceiving an ongoing pregnancy in subfertile couples. Human Reproduction, 2007;22:1652-1656.
  4. Stanford, J.B., Smith, K.R., & Dunson, D.B. Vulvar mucus observations and the probability of pregnancy. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2003;101:1285-1292.
  5. Wilcox, A.J., Dunson, D., & Baird, D.D. The timing of the “fertile window” in the menstrual cycle: day specific estimates from a prospective study. British Medical Journal. 321 (November, 2000):1259-1262.
  6. X. Bilianm Z. Heng, And W. Shang-Chun, et al., “Conception probabilities at different days of menstrual cycle in Chinese women,” Fertility and Sterility (July 5, 2009) Epub ahead of print.

Time to Pregnancy/ Timing Intercourse

  1. Bigelow JL, Dunson DB, Stanford JB, Ecochard R, Gnoth C, Colombo B. Mucus observations in the fertile window: a better predictor of conception than timing of intercourse. Human Reproduction. 2004;19:889-892.
  2. Colombo B, Mion A, Passarin K, Scarpa B. Cervical mucus symptom and daily fecundability: first results from a new database. Statistical Methods in Medical Research, 2006; 15:161-180.
  3. Gnoth, C., Godehardt, D., Godehardt, E., et al. Time to pregnancy: results of the German prospective study and impact on the management of infertility. Human Reproduction. 2003;18:1959-1966.
  4. Robinson JE, C.Stat MW, Ellis JE. Increased pregnancy rate with use of the Clearblue Easy Fertility Monitor. Fertility and Sterility, 2007;87:329- 234.
  5. Scarpa B, Dunson DB. Bayesian methods for searching for optimal rules for timing intercourse to achieve pregnancy. Statistics In Medicine, 2007;26:1920-1936.
  6. Sinai I. Arevalo M. It’s all in the timing: coital frequency and fertility awareness-based methods of family planning. Journal of Biosocial Science, 2006;38:763-777.
  7. Snick HKA. Should spontaneous or timed intercourse guide couples trying to conceive? Human Reproduction, 2005;10:2976-77.
  8. Snick, H.K., J.A. Collins, and J. L. H. Evers. What is the most valid comparison treatment in trials of intrauterine insemination, times or uninfluenced intercourse? A systematic review and meta-analysis of indirect evidence. Human Reproduction, 2008; 23(10):239-2245.
  9. Stanford, J.B., White, G.L., & Hatasaka, H. Timing intercourse to achieve pregnancy: current evidence. Obstetrics & Gynecology. 100 (December, 2002):1333- 1341.

Menstrual Cycle Physiology/Medical Tx

  1. Fehring, R., Schneider, M., & Raviele, K. (2006). Variability in the phases of the menstrual cycle. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, 35(3), 376-384.
  2. Fehring RJ, Schneider M. Variability in the hormonally estimated fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. Fertility and Sterility. 2008 Oct;90(4):1232-5.
  3. Menarguez M, Pastor LM, Odeblad E. Morphological characterization of different human cervical mucus types using light and scanning electron microscopy. Human Reproduction, 2004;18:1782-1789.
  4. Mikolajczyk, RT, Buck Louis, GM, Cooney, MA, Lynch, CD, Sundaram, DR. Characteristics of prospectively measured vaginal bleeding among women trying to conceive. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 24 (2009): 24-30.
  5. Stanford, JB, Parnell, TA, and Boyle, PC (2008) Outcomes from treatment of infertility with natural procreative technology in an Irish general practice. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine 21:375-384.
  6. Vigil, P. Contreres, JL Alvarado, A Godoy, A.<. Salgado, M.E. Cortez. Evidence of subpopulations with different levels of insulin resistance in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Human Reproduction, 2007 Nov;22(11):2974-80.
  7. Vigil, P. Cortes, ME, Zuniga, A., Riquelme, J., Ceric, F. Scanning electron and light microscopy study of the cervical mucus in women with polycystic ovary syndrome. Journal of Electron Microscopy. 2009; 58(1):21-27.
  8. Wiebe ER, Trussell J. Contraceptive failure related to estimated cycle day of conception related to the start of the last bleeding episode. Contraception 2009; 79: 178-181.

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First Comes Love

Here is everything you wanted to tell your married child, and everything you wish your parents had told you about marriage. First Comes Love is a collection of the very best the Church has to offer to help couples have long and very happy marriages. Drawing from Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, Christopher West, Emily Sederstrand, Steve Wood, St John Chrysostom, and many others, this publication offers articles, quotes, personal testimonies, graphs, prayers, and recommendations. Subjects include finding the right mate, the blessings of children, the value of Natural Family Planning, how chastity works inside of marriage, and infertility; everything a young couple needs to get their marriage onto a solid foundation.

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Why Contraception Matters

by Stephen Patton M.A., J.D.
Florida Respect Life Conference, October 13, 2007


Introduction:

Greetings. This is Bishop Victor Galeone from the Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida. You’re about to hear a marvelous presentation by Steve Patton, the Director of our Family Life office. Steve clearly explains why the Church’s timeless wisdom dealing with marital love brings great joy to married couples and deep satisfaction to the priests who serve them. Be careful, though, this message could have a lasting impact on your life, for the better. Enjoy the presentation.

Stephen Patton:

Good afternoon. I need to begin with a “viewer’s discretion advisory.” In this talk I’m going to discuss some details about the marital act: what takes place, what it means, and how it can be distorted. So if you’re listening now with young children, either live or on the recording, please take their ages into consideration and perhaps listen later when they’re not present.

I’d like to tell you about three people: a priest and a married couple. They’re fictional characters, but in a sense they’re quite real. Each represents a composite of the views of many actual priests and married couples in the United States today.

First, let me introduce you to Fr. Friendly. Fr. Friendly is loved and respected by his parishioners, and he loves and respects them. He knows all about the many temptations and tensions they face every day, and so he makes it a point to teach them often about God’s compassion and mercy. But of all the many issues that weigh down upon his flock, and so weigh down upon him, two stand out: abortion and divorce.

While he’s not what you might call an activist pro-life priest, he knows that abortion is a grave crime against the unborn. He has even occasionally preached about it, although always with compassion. He knows that most women make that awful decision not so much as a free choice, but because they didn’t think they really had a choice. He wants to reach out to them, and he wants to keep anyone else from making that same terrible decision. He wishes he could pinpoint why it is that so many people, including so many seemingly good Catholics, still fall prey to this sin by the hundreds of thousands.

He likewise grieves the epidemic of divorce. He has personally ministered to dozens of broken marriages and families. It saddens him deeply that this could happen to so many good couples, especially those who seemed to have it all together: regular church-goers, kind people, parents who love their children. He has preached about the sanctity of marriage, he has encouraged distressed couples to go to counseling, he promotes marriage enrichment programs. And yet the divorces continue to multiply.

One topic Fr. Friendly has never preached about, though, is contraception. He knows use of it is against the official teaching of the Catholic Church, and he knows that most Catholics don’t comply with that teaching. He doesn’t preach about this or bring it up in confession, though. He figures, with all the other burdens his flock is already carrying, he shouldn’t lay that one on them too. He suspects there is something wrong with contraception, but he’s always figured that it’s really not that big a deal, and that there are more important things to talk about.

Now let me introduce you to Mr. & Mrs. Goodpeople. The Goodpeople’s are active, contributing members of Fr. Friendly’s parish, and in each of the areas I just mentioned their views are virtually identical to his. They know that abortion is wrong and they don’t think anyone should ever have one. They’re also saddened at the epidemic of divorce all around them, in their own family and among their closest friends. They just can’t understand what’s going on. They take their own marriage seriously and they wish every couple would do the same.

But if they’re in tune with the teachings of the Church when it comes to abortion and divorce, they’re not when it comes to contraception. Mrs. Goodpeople has been on the Pill since she became sexually active as a teenager. No one ever told her there was anything wrong with this – not her parents, not her peers, not her teachers, not her doctors, not her priests. They’ve either said contraception was the good and responsible thing to do, or they’ve said nothing at all. For Mr. Goodpeople it was much the same way. So, the two of them took this way of thinking into their marriage. Except for when they wanted to conceive, they’ve always used contraception.

Every now and then they’ve heard something about the Catholic Church “frowning upon” contraception, or that it “disapproves of” it. But they’ve never heard that it’s a serious sin. It’s never been explained to them how it offends God and harms us. Somewhere along the line they’ve also heard rumors about something called NFP, but they’ve never looked into it. They don’t know anyone who takes it seriously, apparently including Fr. Friendly. The Goodpeople’s want to do the right thing, and they’d probably be open to learning about the church’s teaching if it was ever presented to them. But unless that happens they’re going to just keep on using contraception and eventually they will also probably choose to get sterilized.

It’s to all of you Fr. Friendly’s and Mr. and Mrs. Goodpeople’s out there that I offer these thoughts. I want to show you two things. First, I want to show you why contraception really is a big deal. I want to show you that no matter how passionate you or any of us might be about stopping abortion and divorce, until we start changing our contraceptive views and practices, we’re never going to see an end to either of those two evils.

Second, I want to bring all this home to us as a Church. What kind of effect, on us, does our complicity with the contraceptive mentality have? And what can we do about it?

Our Culture of Dual Death

So let’s look first at how contraception leads to both abortion and divorce.

You’ve probably heard the terms “culture of life” and “culture of death” that were coined by Pope John Paul II. I think we could split the term culture of death into two sub-categories: death to life and death to marital love.

By death to life, I mean not just to death to tens of millions of pre-born babies, but to a growing death to the very idea of babies. Across North America, Europe, and in virtually every other culture where abortion has become common, we can also observe declining birth rates and in many instances dramatically declining birth rates.

So a culture of death to life is culture with a generally declining view toward new human life. We’re either outright killing a huge percentage of our babies through abortion, or we’re taking a dimmer, more pessimistic view of conceiving them at all.

Our culture of death to marital love shows a similar pattern. We’re more and more seeing not just outright death to marital love in the form of divorce – which is tragic enough at about 50% of all marriages – but also a kind of death to the very idea of making such a commitment. Fewer people are getting married at all. Marriage rates in the U.S. have been steadily declining for decades.

What’s happening here? This notion of a man and a woman making a life-long commitment of love, and staying in it, has been around for thousands of years in every human culture. Why is it now, in our culture, gradually dieing away?

Look at abortion and divorce side by side. Keep in mind: neither is new to the human experience. Both have been around for thousands of years, but usually only as the extreme fall-back option. So why is it that both of them, at basically the same time suddenly came out of the dark fringes and mushroomed to epidemic levels?

What I suggest, is that all of this death and withering – in the forms of abortion, declining birth rates, divorce, declining marriage rates – all of this mushroomed together right along with the mushrooming use of contraception.

Our Culture of Contraception

I’d like to show you now what I can only describe as our culture of contraception, but first, I want to ask you to consider the terms “contraception” and “sterilization” to be virtually interchangeable. After all, contraception is basically a temporary form of sterilization, while sterilization is a permanent form of contraception. Each, though, is essentially the same thing: an act that intentionally renders the sexual act sterile. So when I refer to our culture of contraception, what I’m really referring to is our culture of sterilized sex. What do I mean by that?

The dominant, modern American view of sex is that for most if not all of a person’s reproductive life, their natural, healthy state of fertility needs to be sterilized. If you don’t sterilize it, then it is not, quote unquote, “safe”. The possibility that sexual activity could lead to pregnancy is something you need to protect yourself from. We understand the phrase, “responsible sex”, as in, “responsible people use birth control; irresponsible people don’t” in the same way.

Indoctrination to this way of thinking starts early. Whether it’s from our peers, parents, teachers, doctors or the media, instruction about birth control usually comes to us hand in hand with instruction about sex in general. It’s considered to be the normal, safe, responsible thing that people do. Now, please understand, we can and must oppose with this view. What I’m saying, though, is that there is wide support for it. You can be a well respected parent and civic leader not just in spite of holding this view but because of holding it.

The result of all this accumulated cultural pressure is that well over 90% of Americans will engage in sterilized sex in one form or another over the course of their lives, and Catholics like the Goodpeople’s are no exception. They and millions of others like them build their entire lives around this view of fertility. It’s just a given. It’s the air we breathe. Take sterilized sex out of the picture, and most Americans would feel their entire world seriously threatened. Even people who would oppose teaching children about condoms, or putting contraceptives into the hands of young or unmarried people, would see it, for married couples, as American as apple pie. It’s no wonder Fr. Friendly won’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.

But just stop and think about the enormity of what’s going on here.

Just think about what it means from a medical standpoint to sterilize the reproductive organs, either temporarily or permanently. All of medicine, all of health care can be boiled down to this: you either help sick organs get healthy or you help healthy organs stay healthy. That’s it. Medical care is never supposed to make healthy organs sick or interfere with their natural operations. Sometimes we have to make healthy organs suffer as an unintended side effect, like when a person gets ill from chemo-therapy for cancer. But that’s only when the greater good of the person’s health is at stake. We’re never supposed to make an organ sick or mutilate it as the central, intended purpose. Doctors understand this, nurses understand this, we all understand this.

But for some strange reason how we treat the reproductive organs stands as the one, glaring exception to this rule. But fertility is a natural, healthy state. It’s not an illness that needs to be corrected with surgery. It’s not a disease that we need to be healed of with a pill. But sterilizing these healthy organs is not only widely accepted by health care providers; you’re considered backwards and irresponsible if you don’t accept it. In the medical community, contraception and sterilization have become the “standard of care.”

Why sterilized sex causes abortion and divorce

Now, let’s return to the question, why would this widespread acceptance and approval of sterilized sex give rise to widespread abortion and divorce?

I’m going to answer this question at two levels, first, the more apparent level, which I’ll call the tip of the iceberg, and then the more subtle level below the surface.

– The Tip of the Iceberg

So, let’s first look at the more obvious level of how a culture of sterilized sex leads to a culture of death.

– Death to Marital Love

First, by it leading to a culture of death to marital love, I mean this. It used to be, before the contraceptive revolution, that there was a pretty clear and firm connection between sex and marriage. Married people had sex, unmarried people didn’t, or if they did, they more or less knew that they weren’t supposed to. Most everybody knew this.

But over the course of the twentieth century, as contraception became more socially accepted, more available, and more effective, all that began to change. By the time the sixties rolled around it was becoming clear, to married and unmarried people alike, that you didn’t have to be married to have sex. Contraceptive practice had made sex into a recreational activity that everyone has a right to.

What did this mean for the unmarried? Well, you probably heard the old saying, “Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?” Widespread acceptance and availability of contraception has led to widespread fornication. Pre marital sex is now not only socially acceptable, but socially respectable. It’s no different among Catholics. 90% of engaged couples in the U.S. who come to the Catholic Church for marriage are already sexually active. 90% Yes, people do still get married, but in fewer numbers. Why? Well, one of the reasons a man and woman used to get married was to start having sex, and contraception basically removed that as a reason.

What did the contraceptive revolution do to married people? There are three ways that it led to an increase in divorce rates.

First, it’s the flip side of what I just mentioned: if sex is no longer a reason to get married, then it’s also no longer a reason to stay married. Anyone can have it. It’s pretty much a commodity. But once sex is removed from the portrait of all those things that make marriage unique and valuable, then a married couple at risk will have one less reason to try to make it work.

Second, widespread contraceptive practice in many cases removed another reason that has traditionally held together married couples, namely, children. There is something to be said for a couple trying to make their marriage work for the sake of the children. But what happens when there are no children? More contraception has led to fewer children, and in many cases to no children at all. Divorces naturally followed.

Third, widespread use of contraception by married couples also led to an increase of adultery. Once you take away one of the greatest fears of extra-marital sex – which is pregnancy – you’re going to see an increase of that activity. And when there is an increase in adultery there’s also going to be an increase in divorce.

In net effect, our culture of sterilized sex has made marriage on the whole a less attractive institution to enter into, and an easier institution to get out of. It’s contributed to the demise of millions of marriages, both those that actually took place and those that should have taken place, but never did.

– Death to Life

Let’s look now at how our culture of widespread sterilized sex has also led to our culture of widespread death to pre-born human life. Keep in mind that for the moment we’re looking only at the tip of the iceberg. We’ll look at the deeper level in a moment.

How does widespread contraception lead to declining birth rates? Well if the life-giving potential of sex is pervasively removed from the picture, a cultural mindset is gradually fostered in which children themselves are pervasively removed from the picture. They tend to be viewed not as gifts but as liabilities, spoilers of a pleasurable lifestyle. We might have one or two, if that would be pleasurable to us, but after that the norm is to reject them.

How does widespread contraception lead to widespread abortion? I credit Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse with summing up the motto of our culture of sexual liberation this way, and keep in mind that our culture of sexual liberation was made possible only by our culture of contraception: She says ours is a culture in which, “all adults are entitled to unlimited sexual activity without a live baby resulting.” I’ll say that again, “all adults are entitled to unlimited sexual activity without a live baby resulting.”

What Dr. Morse touches upon is our culture’s prevailing disconnection between sex and babies. Before contraception was king, the prevailing assumption was that a baby was a natural consequence of sex. If you chose to engage in sex, you knew it could result in a baby. You might not have wanted that to happen, but you assumed that it could happen. If a baby did result, it was because of your freely chosen action, and so you were likely, not necessarily, but likely, to feel a certain kind of responsibility toward that child.

The contraceptive revolution changed all that. It led to the prevailing assumption that babies really shouldn’t have anything to do with sex. That is, not unless you wanted a baby to have something to do with sex, not unless you allowed that. Or as Dr. Morse said, not unless you’re into that kind of thing.

Now couples who think this way do know that keeping a baby out of the picture doesn’t just happen by itself; you have to do your part. You have to do something to the sexual act to make sure that a baby won’t be conceived. That’s what, quote unquote, taking responsibility for your actions now means with respects to sexual activity.

But if a couple has this kind of attitude, then when the contraception fails, as it often does, and there’s a pregnancy, they’re not going to tend to think the baby’s there because of their actions. They’re going to tend to think the baby’s there in spite of their actions. In other words, their mindset is not so much that this is their child that they conceived. Rather, they’re going to tend to think it’s an invader that they failed to repel. This kind of thinking is likely to foster quite a different sense of what’s the responsible thing to do next.

Now, I realize, we’re not talking about abortion, yet. Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, and not everyone who uses contraception goes on to have an abortion when it fails. What I’m saying, though, is that contraception, by its very nature, and as a broad social phenomenon, tends to incline the heart of a nation toward abortion. As John Paul II put it in Evangelium Vitae, Latin for the Gospel of Life, the contraceptive mentality strengthens the temptation to abort. Contraception and abortion are not the same thing, but as John Paul put it, they are as closely connected as “fruits of the same tree.”

Under the Iceberg

We’ve looked at the tip of the iceberg. I want to show you now a deeper view of how widespread sterilized sex leads to both abortion and divorce. To do that, I need to show you first the way sex is supposed to look like, the way it was made by God.

When God created sex, he made it to serve two purposes or meanings: # 1. to express the bond of marital love between a husband and a wife, and #2. to create new human life. And here’s a crucial point. He also made those two meanings or purposes to be intimately, organically bound up in one another. In other words, together the two form a whole, such that anything a person might do to disrupt the organic union of those two meanings would jeopardize the well-being of both. The meaning of marital love would be jeopardized, and so would the meaning of human life.

How are these two meanings – marital love and openness to life –expressed together in the sexual act as it was made by God?

The pinnacle moment of sex, for both the husband and the wife, is the moment of orgasm. In that one moment, which ideally happens for them at the same time, they experience together the most intense sensations of physical pleasure and emotional connectedness. By that act their bodies express all the values of the union of love which holds them together as husband and wife. They are each saying to the other, with the language of their bodies, “Oh my Gosh! I love you and I want all of you and I give all of myself to you!”

Meanwhile, consider what’s happening physiologically to heighten and reinforce this sensation of union. During orgasm, in both the man and the woman, the hormone oxytocin floods into their bloodstreams. Now ordinarily it’s understood that this happens for the woman, but it also happens for the man, at a lower level of intensity, but it still happens for the man as well as for the woman.

Oxytocin is nicknamed the hormone of love because it is involved in social recognition, bonding, and the formation of trust between people. So orgasm is deeply wired to express and affirm a bond of love. This doesn’t mean that sex is actually always used in that way, but at a deep organic level that is what it was made to do.

What about the life giving meaning? Consider what happens with the man’s and the woman’s reproductive organs. For the husband, the moment of orgasm is the moment in which he releases, into his wife’s body, not just a fluid, but literally his seed, his genetic identity. For him then that act of orgasm simultaneously expresses not only his loving union with her, but also any hope he has ever had or ever will have of becoming a father with her. Perhaps, in his mind, he may not actually want to become a father with her by this particular act. But, and this is crucial, his body nevertheless craves to express openness to that possibility. In and through his body he is saying, “Oh my gosh! I could become a father with you!” And even more, “Oh my gosh, my body is actually trying to become a father with you!”

Meanwhile, for the wife, just as with her husband, the experience of orgasm is also deeply connected to the possibility of creating a new life. For her, orgasm comes in the form of uterine contractions. The neck of her uterus literally dips down repeatedly toward the pool of her husband’s semen, in a kind of lapping motion. Please understand what’s happening here. Her body is not just launching into some kind of non-directional ecstasy; it wants that seed! It wants to help it reach its goal! So, just as with her husband’s act of ejaculation, in the very act of her uterine contractions she is simultaneously expressing not only the most intense feelings of union with her husband, but also her own deepest bodily desires to become a mother by him.

Let me add another physiological fact about the woman’s body that illustrates this deep wiring to reproduce. For the man, sexual desire for his wife is fairly constant from one day to the next. Not so for her. As you may know, the days when she is likely to feel the most intense sexual desires for her husband are those few fertile days of the month when she is most likely to conceive. In her mind, she may actually want to conceive, or not, and she may actually be able to conceive, or not. But in a sense, none of that really matters. What matters is that her body in its own way, and her husband’s body in its own way, are both deeply wired such that they are always trying to say the following two things by way of sexual intercourse, and to say them simultaneously: “I love you forever” and “I yearn to create new life with you.”

Now let’s look at what happens to this marvelously complex picture of human sexuality when a couple purposefully thwarts the life-giving meaning, and see how that can incline them toward both divorce and abortion. By the way, please don’t think in any of this that I’m referring to couples who are infertile through no fault of their own. The decisive factor is not sterility, but deliberate sterility.

– Divorce

Let’s look at divorce first. The bond that holds a married couple together is made up of a variety of forces: moral, social, religious, emotional, economic, and so forth. As any one of those forces fades or weakens, so too will the strength of the marriage bond also fade or weaken. Divorces likewise will increase. One of these forces that holds a married couple together is regular, meaningful sexual relations. “Meaningful” is the key word here. If for whatever reason their sexual relations become less meaningful, or perhaps altogether meaningless, then so too will their marital bond weaken. So, if marital sex, as a broad social phenomenon, is becoming less meaningful, then we can expect that divorces will begin to multiply.

This is indeed what has happened to the meaning of sex in our day. By our nation’s pervasive removal of the life-giving meaning of sex, we have made sex that much less meaningful. Think of the millions of couples who have contracepted themselves right up to the point where one or both of them complains that their sex has become basically meaningless. God hard-wired that life-giving meaning into the core of the sexual experience. It was made to be a major part of the wow factor of sex: the spark, the mystery of life itself. So then we turn around and do everything we can to cancel that meaning out? Don’t we think negative consequences might follow?

Please ponder the irony here. The married couple who sterilizes their sex imagines that by doing this they will enhance their relationship. You know, they get to have sex, when maybe they wouldn’t have had it otherwise, and that will strengthen their relationship, right? Well it doesn’t work that way. Yes, they might have an orgasm together and that would probably feel pleasurable at a purely physical level. And it could also be an affectionate, tension-relieving moment for them. But what they’ve lost through doing this is the fullness of the meaning of their sexual relations, and that is a huge loss. However much they might truly love one another, and want to express that love, if they’ve done something to remove that “we could have a baby” meaning, by doing that, they have diminished the meaning of the act as a whole.

And it gets worse. John Paul II pointed out that because of that organic, symbiotic connection between the two meanings of sex, if a couple takes away the life-giving meaning they are, by doing that, in some mysterious way, also taking away the love-giving meaning. In this view, to sterilize sex is to completely rob it of meaning.

A study just published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine seems to support this view (J Reprod Med 2007; 52:263-272). The authors of the 2007 study, entitled, “Effects of Tubal Ligation Among American Women,” found that women who have had a tubal ligation were more likely than women who have not had one to report two things: #1. stress interfering with sex, and #2 seeing a physician regarding sexual problems. In addition to their own findings the authors refer in their article to past research which has shown, and I quote, “that women with a tubal ligation have a tendency to report a kind of mutilated body image.” They conclude, and again I quote, “it is reasonable to ask whether tubal ligation in some way disrupts the emotional bond between the partners.” In some way it disrupts the emotional bond. What they can’t quite identify, this “some way,” is that mysterious connection between the life-giving meaning and the love-giving meaning. To disrupt the life-giving purpose or meaning is to disrupt the love-giving meaning or purpose.

And the tragedy, again, is that this is not at all what the couple that gets sterilized desires. Quite the contrary. They do it because they think it will enhance their emotional bond. But like drinking salt water to quench one’s thirst, engaging in sterilized sex will not quench the human thirst for love. Not only is the deep need not met, it is worsened. Our contraceptive culture has left us bloated with sex, and dehydrated for love. And thereby inclined toward divorce.

– Abortion

Let’s look now at what distorting the sexual act means for abortion. Recall how in the moment of orgasm, the man’s and the woman’s bodies each in their own way convulse together in a shared effort to conceive a new life. I repeat what I said a moment ago: their bodies will try to do this every time independent of either their intention or their ability to actually conceive a new life.

In light of this fact, I think it’s beautiful to think about a couple in their seventies making love. She hasn’t ovulated in decades. There’s no possibility of conceiving a new life. And yet there are their bodies, still doing that mysterious fertility dance together, still striving, against all odds, to conceive a baby. From the beginning of their marriage all the way to its end, their love for one another is somehow always mysteriously connected to creating new life together.

But what does a young, fertile married couple do about this if it really isn’t the right time for them to have a baby? Well, if they want to live in harmony with their bodies, they will wait for a naturally infertile time. When that time comes, their bodies will again come together and do that fertility dance. They will strain to conceive. That’s very likely not going to actually happen, but it won’t be because they have done anything to thwart the life-giving potential of their own bodies. This is a natural, holistic way of living with your fertility. You always treat it with reverence, awe, and gentleness. You always receive it and work with it, even if this means having to suffer occasionally.

Compare this approach with the far more popular alternative that couples choose these days, which is not to work with the life-giving mystery of their own bodies, but to work against it. The gift of fertility is not received, it is rejected. It is not treated gently, it is interfered with, or manipulated, or surgically mutilated. By whatever method they choose, couples who sterilize their sex apply force against themselves. It’s a kind of violence done to the human body, and mind you, violence done to very special parts of the human body at the very moment when they are eagerly trying to carry out a very sacred function: to create new human life.

Speaking of self-violence, guys, think for a moment what really happens when you have a vasectomy. Your testicles are still there, but they’ve been sliced away from the act that they were created for. Now they’re just hanging there, inert, like the living dead – little zombies. By the way, if you have been sterilized, either by a vasectomy or a tubal ligation, the procedure can be reversed. You can return those organs in exile to the land of the living.

I’m not here to cast stones. I’m just asking you to stand back and think about what we’re actually doing with sterilized sex. Regardless of our motives, or our moral culpability, or whatever, we are engaging in a kind of alienation and war with our own bodies. And think about it happening not just with one couple one time, but over and over again, by millions of couples, year after year, to the point that this is now the normal way our nation, and our Church, treats the mystery of life in sex.

So here’s the punch line: Do you think that our nation’s common pattern of rejecting our fertility might have a spill-over effect in how we treat our surprise pregnancies? Is it not reasonable that violence regularly done against the life-giving potential of sex could lead toward violence done against life itself? Again, I’m not saying that any given couple, like the Goodpeople’s, who sterilize their sexual relations will necessarily themselves get an abortion or even think that anyone else should ever get one. What I am saying, though, is that any couple who uses contraception needs to know that their acts of sterilized sex are not isolated. They fit into a broad cultural pattern, and they contribute to that pattern. And it’s the very same cultural pattern that encourages abortion.

What Does This Mean for Our Church?

At the beginning of this talk I said I wanted to show you two things. I’ve just tried to do the first, which is to show you that contraception really is a big deal; that it’s at the root of our modern day cultures of abortion and divorce. Now I want to show you the second, which is what our Church’s complicity with the contraceptive mentality has done to us, and what we as a Church can do about it.

First, what do I mean by our Church’s complicity? Poll after poll, study after study, show that contraception is just as popular with us Catholics as it is with the rest of the United States public. And this is not just the case for those who say they’re Catholic, but never go to church. It includes active members like Mr. & Mrs. Goodpeople, people who attend Church regularly, who say their religion is very important to them, and who otherwise hold orthodox views. This was shown again in a May 2007 study published by Marquette University researchers, Ohlendorf and Fehring. (“The Influence of Religiosity on Contraceptive Use Among Roman Catholic Women in the United States,” The Linacre Quarterly, May 2007, Volume 74, Number 2, pp. 135 – 144.) In fact, their study showed that regular, church-going Catholics are more likely to get sterilized than Catholics who don’t go to church.

What has this done to us as a Church? I found some insight from an unusual source. When I was preparing this talk, I was trying to come up with words and images to describe a world with contraception, and a world without contraception. I turned to the 6th edition of the Roget’s International Thesaurus, copyright 2001. If you’re not familiar with this book, it is, first of all, THE authority on the English language, and, second of all, it’s a totally secular resource. It has no religious or moral agenda, good or bad. It simply does what a thesaurus is supposed to do: it groups words, as they are commonly understood, into categories of similar words, and then contrasts those categories with other categories.

The word contraception was grouped in a word category entitled “Unproductiveness.” Before I read some of the words and phrases from that category, I want to read you some of the words and phrases from the contrasting category right next to it entitled “Productiveness.” Now there are dozens of words in each of these categories, and I’m not going to read all of them. This is just a sampling to help create a picture for you.

First, under the category, Productiveness, are these words: fruitfulness, fertility, fecundity, pregnancy, richness, lushness, generousness, abundance, rich soil, compost, manure, swarming muck, land flowing with milk and honey, hotbed, and here’s the kicker: teeming loins.

Now contrast this picture with the words from the category, Unproductiveness: dryness, famine, sterility, contraception, barren wasteland, lunar landscape, howling wilderness, ineffectual, drained, childless, impotence, planned parenthood, dry womb, and finally: withered loins.

If it is indeed true that at any given time 85 percent of American Catholic couples of childbearing age are either contracepting or sterilized, then we have indeed become a Church of withered loins. Is this what we want to be? Is this what the Mystical Body of Christ is supposed to look like? Or do we want to become again what we once were, a Church of teeming loins? Let’s compare the two.

A Church of withered loins is a Church with little to say to the sexually confused world around it. If we, the devout church-goers, can’t get it straight, or refuse to get it straight, about the God-given connections between sex, love, marriage and babies, then God help the rest of the world. For example, take the growing normalization of homosexuality. There was an article by a gay activist that came out a few years ago entitled, “We Are All Sodomites Now.” He basically argues, now that you heterosexuals have completely embraced your style of sterile sex, then you’re hypocrites to question our gay style of sterilized sex. He gets a lot wrong in that article, but he sure has a point there.

A Church of withered loins likewise stutters when it tries to talk to its own young people about chastity. Millions of concerned parents like Mr. and Mrs. Goodpeople know all about the sexual meat-grinder of a world out there, and they dearly want to protect their children from it. But how will they be able to speak convincingly to their children about how a young person can go happily without sex, maybe for years, when they can’t go without it for even a few days a month? Please don’t get me wrong – we need abstinence education programs. But until we, the grown ups, can start walking the talk, then we’re pretty much just wasting our time.

A Church of withered loins also produces only a trickle of priestly and religious vocations. Vocations do not spring forth from a vacuum. They spring forth from lives, families, and parishes that are characterized by hopefulness, generosity, self-sacrifice and self-control. Sterilized sex reinforces the exactly opposite values of fearfulness, self-absorption, and self-indulgence.

What does a Church of teeming loins look like? Well it has struggles of its own. It’s not an entirely pretty picture. By the way, to help make this point, I made sure to include words like swarming muck and manure in the image of productiveness I painted a few minutes ago. But unlike the struggles of a Church of withered loins, the struggles of the Church of teeming loins are wholesome, natural, and, in the end, redemptive.

If you want to imagine what a Church of teeming loins looks like, imagine an immigrant parish of a hundred years ago, or an Irish parish of fifty years ago, or an African parish of today. It’s a parish with lots of babies: smiling babies, crying babies, soiled babies, drooling babies, sniveling babies – all those liquids of life and all their smells. It’s a parish of large families, poor families, struggling families, sacrificial families, families that help other families, families that stick together no matter what, families that build cathedrals. And oh by the way, a parish of teeming loins is also a parish with a teeming abundance of priestly and religious vocations.

Encouragement to Married Couples

How can we become this kind of a Church again? Let me offer some encouragement now to all of you Mr. & Mrs. Goodpeople’s out there, and then to all of you Fr. Friendly’s.

Mr. & Mrs. Goodpeople, I hope you know, that I know, that life can be difficult and there really can be legitimate reasons for a married couple to forestall having a child. The Church is not saying you need to have fifteen children to be good Catholics. What I’m asking you to do, though, on behalf of the Church, is to look at this over-sexualized world around us, and consider how it has maybe influenced some of the ways you view sex, fertility and babies. Those ways of the world, in many respects, are contrary not only to God’s plan but to your own happiness.

Let me quickly add this, in case you’re thinking, well, Steve, we’re pretty happy as we are with contraception, thank you very much. First, if you were to live your entire lives in a contraceptive mindset, you’d never know what a great difference you might have seen without it. Couples who make the switch regularly talk about the profound improvements they’ve seen in their marriages, their faith lives, and in their sexual lives.

Second, and this is even more important, what you think, or what I think, or what anybody thinks, is going to make us happy is not the bottom line when it comes to doing what God wants us to do. Sometimes he wants us to do things that might not feel so good, but we’ve got to do them anyway. Rejecting contraception is one of them. It’s a bad choice, but it’s not just a bad choice, like eating a Twinkie. Objectively speaking, it can sever us from friendship with God. Therefore, it is something we have to confess.

Maybe you’re still not convinced. Maybe you’re thinking that you don’t need the teachings of the Catholic Church to figure out what’s pleasing to God. Friends, please understand that this teaching and any teaching of the Catholic Church is true not because the Church teaches us that it’s true. It’s the other way around. The Church teaches it because it is true. So sure you can choose to disobey the Church’s teaching on contraception, but that’s not going to make it untrue. And it’s also not going to mean that you won’t have to suffer the consequences that will flow from your choice.

The bottom line you need to keep in mind, though, as you ponder what to do, is that this teaching of the Church is not given to us to spoil our enjoyment of life. It’s given to us so we might enjoy life to the full. So, yes, the Church lovingly invites us to treat God’s gifts of sex, fertility and babies in a way very different from the easy way the world says we should treat them. But I say to you that that easy way of the world, that way of contraception and sterilization, is the way that leads to death. Death to life. Death to love. We can choose to follow it, and we may stay married, and we may still look okay and feel okay, but in the end the sin will still have its effect, one way or the other, on our souls, on our marriages, on our church and on our country.

Or you can choose the way of God taught by the Church, which means choosing the way of life. It would mean taking time to learn about the natural cycles of your fertility. It would mean never intentionally doing anything to your bodies that would alter, mutilate, block or otherwise mess up your fertility. If there are times in your marriage that you really do need to avoid getting pregnant, it would mean abstaining from sex during the wife’s time of fertility, which is usually around five to eight days every month. No doubt, this can be difficult, but you can do it, you really can! And for making these small sacrifices you would get to live your sexual lives and your marriages in full harmony with the divine plan.

Encouragement to Priests

To our priests, and also to our bishops, I would respectfully offer these thoughts. From what I’ve observed, some married couples will discover, on their own, without any guidance from you, the truth about contraception and Natural Family Planning and make changes. But I think you know, as well as I do, that without your leadership in this area not much is ever going to change. Your influence is enormous.

I gave a presentation once about NFP to some priests, and afterwards one of them pulled me aside and said, referring to the laity, “Steve, they’re just not buying it.” And I said to him, Father, respectfully, if they’re not buying it, it’s because you’re not buying it. I know this because I know priests who do buy it, who really do understand the gravity of contraception, what’s really at stake, and who are able and willing to talk to their people about it. And they have seen their people rise to the challenge and make the necessary changes.

These priests need not thunder down threats of hell. They just firmly and lovingly explain what human sexuality is about and what we do to ourselves and our relationship to God when we use contraception. Will some people still choose to contracept and get sterilized, no matter how kindly and lovingly you speak? Sure. It happens with other issues. Will some leave the Church? Maybe. But, respectfully, Father, that is not your problem. That’s between them and the Holy Spirit. Your job as the clergy is to preach to us the truth in love, the whole truth. Our job as the laity is to hear it. When the seed falls on good soil it will bear fruit a hundred-fold. But the seed has to be sown first.

If you want to address this topic in your parish, but you don’t yet feel equipped to deliver a full homily on it, consider using what Dr. Janet Smith calls “drive-by orthodoxy.” This is when you raise the sinfulness of contraception indirectly when you’re addressing another issue. So, for example, in a homily on the sacrament of confession you could include contraception and sterilization in a list of serious sins for which a person should go to confession before receiving communion. You could also bring in a priest to give a homily. An organization called NFP Outreach, nfpoutreach.org, has several priests on staff who travel to parishes around the country giving missions on this subject. They also have lots of other resources on their website to help you educate yourself and your parishioners about this issue.

Here are some other resources: One More Soul, at omsoul.com, has probably the largest variety of educational materials on NFP, contraception, sterilization and sterilization reversal. Ascension Press, which is at AscensionPress.com, also has a wide assortment of resources on Theology of the Body, including many resources by Christopher West.

Other things you can do. Bring the issue up in confession. I know people who would have never even thought about confessing contraception until a priest gently asked them about it in confession. Always cover the matter of birth control when you’re preparing a young couple for marriage. Give them materials to review and then go over it with them afterwards. Let them know not only that God expects them not to use contraception, but that couples who use NFP have much happier marriages on average and a divorce rate that’s a fraction of the general population.

You can also make your parish as baby friendly as possible. At the end of mass many priests will openly recognize those who are celebrating a birthday or an anniversary. You could also recognize anyone who has just had a new baby or a new grandbaby. There might be many Sundays when there would be no response to that question, but that’s part of the point, right? Then when there is a new one lifted up, and she is greeted by thundering applause, the point will really be made. And give special, positive recognition to couples who have made the heroic decision to have a number of children. Usually, if they get any recognition at all, it’s negative, like, “So are you stopping now?” Let that never be the case with us, and, Father, you please lead the way. It doesn’t mean you can’t be playful. I just would love to hear a priest say something like this at the end of mass, “How many is that for you now, Ed & Ruth? What’s your secret? What kind of water are you drinking?! That’s wonderful! God bless you from all of us.”

It’s also important, though, to go beyond mere words like these and to recognize the very real financial and emotional challenges that many couples face, challenges that might make it hard for them to welcome a new child, or that might make it easy for them to succumb to the lure of contraception or sterilization. Just like it is with our fight against abortion, our fight against contraception must be more than just trying to persuade people not to do something. We also need to respond pastorally by helping to create home and parish environments where it is easy and desirable for families to care for children and to welcome new children. So let’s identify the couples that need our help, and, yes, let’s pray for them, but let’s also ask them what they really need, and help them find it.

Final Words

In this talk I hope I’ve shown you that I love our Church. It is because of that love that I want us to be freed of what I can only describe as our bondage to contraception. For that to happen, we need to change a lot of hearts and minds and that will only come by a lot of prayer and a lot of work. But if we will turn to the Lord about this serious matter, with humble and contrite hearts, then he will renew us and heal us and set us free. New fountains of living water will well up within us and flow out from us. In time we will become what God made us to be, and what the culture of death around us so desperately needs us to be: uncompromised witnesses to the sanctity of human life and marital love.

Let me close now with these words of God, spoken through the prophet Isaiah, which give us a picture of what our Church, newly freed from her bondage, can become to the dry and withered land around us: “See, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers. For I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise.” Isaiah 43:18-21.

Author: Fr. Mike Chapman     Date added: 03/11/2011, 06:24 PM    
reviews
Dear Mr. Patton: About a year ago I received a copy of your recording from our archdiocesan family life office. It was sent to all priests in the archdiocese by Cristi Welch, NFP coordinator. I didn’t pay much attention to it. Later, as I packed for a road trip of many miles I put it with other cds to listen to during those long driving hours. I believe it was June 2009. I listened. Something struck a cord. But you packed a lot in a short time. I had to listen to it again and again. Each time I heard something new and challenging. In the intervening period I have listened to your words eight times. As the months past other things surfaced. "The Theology of the Body" by JPII, "Good News about Sex and Marriage" by Christopher West, Billings Ovulation Method came to Oklahoma in November, 2009. Fr. Daniel McCaffrey took my place to preach about NFP and my parishioners heard teaching they had never heard before. They want to know more. I want to know more. I’ve been a parish priest for 41 years. I am a child of the sexual revolution. I accepted it all hook, line, and sinker. At age 68, I am awakening to something new.that’s been around since Genesis according to the Pope. Thanks to you I now ask at the end of Sunday Masses if there are any "new borns" here for the first time! It is an Hispanic community. There are a lot of babies! I need to review your recording again. My conversations have changed. Confessions find my asking questions about marital status, contraceptive use, and why. I keep Dr. Mary Martin’s business card in the confessional. She is a pro life gynecologist who is teaching the Billings Method to patients who will listen. She also helps couples get pregnant in a healthy manner. There is much more I could say but right now I wish to say "THANK YOU" for your recording. It is helping me get it right. Sue Eck of BOMA asked me if I ever thanked you. I was embarrassed to say no. I do thank you and even at this time in my life and ministry it is a good, fresh teaching of the truth before us always. Good work, Mr., Patton! Thank you! Sincerely yours in Christ, Fr. Mike Chapman Holy Angels Church 317 N. Blackwelder Oklahoma City, OK 73106 5213
 
Author: Mary Pat Van Epps, Director, Diocese of Memphis NFP Center     Date added: 02/25/2008, 04:57 PM    
reviews
His voice is so gentle and full of love and truth. He has humor in it, and he paints some vivid pictures to make his points. He has really put together some great arguments to discuss contraception and sterilization and their effect on the rise in abortions and divorces, and their effect on marriages and families and the Church. I was just blown away at how good I thought it was, so I wanted to be sure that all of you know about it. I have already ordered 100 of them, and I want to put them in my NFP packets. Please be sure to get a copy from One More Soul, and I hope you will want to distribute them too. Bishop Galeone gives an introduction, and as usual, I think he is totally right when he says listening to this CD may have a lasting impact on people’s lives. If we can get people to actually listen, their lives really might be changed and our Church might be changed and our world might be changed too. God bless Steve and Bishop Galeone!!!! Please do get a copy of this CD. It is a marvelous promotion of NFP and living the teachings of our Church. I really do love the CD, did I tell you that yet????? I am telling every body I know about it.
 
Author: Christopher West (renowned authority on John Paul II`s Theology of the Body)     Date added: 02/21/2008, 04:14 PM    
reviews
This well-researched, entertaining one-hour talk was directed to priests and laity who sincerely don’t understand what the big deal is about contraception. If you know such a person, please get him or her a copy. But even if you already see contraception as the major moral and cultural issue that it is, I think you will find this talk enlightening and inspiring. It was for me.

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Laffiche du pissenlit et de la rose

Rpandre la Culture de Mort semble aussi facile que de cultiver des pissenlits; alors que btir la Civilisation dAmour semble aussi difficile que de cultiver des roses de prix. Cependant, la manire facile napporte que des fruits amers et la route ardue aboutit laccomplissement de nos plus profonds dsirs. Avec ces images, nous “Une me de Plus ” (One More Soul) voulons dmontrer do vient cette Culture de Mort (lusage rpandue de la contraception) et les changements apporter afin de promouvoir une socit en sant (en pratiquant soi-mme la chastet et en encourageant les autres pratiquer la mme chose). La bonne nouvelle est que cette (norme) tche peut tre accomplie – des millions de jeunes rpondent avec ardeur au message de garder lamour sexuel pour le mariage, des milliers de couples se tournent contre la contraception vers la mthode naturelle pour la planification de la famille ou choisissent tout simplement de remettre leur fertilit entre les mains de Dieu (la planification supernaturelle de la famille). En sachant do vient le problme et en sachant quoi faire, nous pouvons mettre au dfit la prsente culture, ET GAGNER!

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Study Guide for “God is Love”

Synopsis

Double quotes here are used to show text taken directly from the encyclical. Numbers in parentheses are section numbers of the encyclical.

God’s love for us and our response (love for God and others) sums up well the Christian faith and also the destiny of all humans. The word “love” can have many meanings. Love as “eros” is used to mean all the spontaneous human passions, emotions, and attractions that contribute to love. Love as “agape” refers to self-sacrificing love that desires only the good of the beloved. Man is made up of body and soul, so a full, truly human love requires a proper balance of both eros and agape. (1-8)

Revelation in the Bible adds depth to our understanding of love in several ways. The Old Testament presents God to us as loving His people with a marital, erotic love and with wholehearted devotion as well. Also in the Old Testament, man is portrayed as incomplete without a mate, without someone to love and be loved by. Man’s drive to fill this incompleteness, a drive we call “eros,” directs him toward a love which is definitive and unique, that is marriage, the very relationship which God has entered with His people. (9-11)

The New Testament introduces us to the person of Jesus, who embodies “love in its most radical form.” Jesus made His love accessible in an enduring way by instituting the Eucharist. The Eucharist unites participants to Jesus’ own love, and, by its social character, also commits them to love for all who participate and, according to Jesus’ teaching, for all who are in need. (12-15)

Through Jesus Himself, through the Eucharist, and through many other avenues, God makes His love visible to us. He then commands us to love others. His own love, which we have experienced, empowers us to obey this command. The members of the Church, due to God’s love present within them, are constantly pressed to care, like God, for the whole range of other people’s needs, including material needs. (16-18)

Love in action is the direct result of the life of God in the hearts of His people. Practical service to the needy has been a key aspect of Christian community life from the very beginning, and throughout Church history to the present. “The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her threefold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.” This service is directed first to members of the community, but includes all others as well. (19-25)

An objection has been raised, especially by Marxism, that works of charity damage the poor because they reduce their suffering, and the poor need the incentive of that suffering to rise up and bring about justice. This objection is misleading, because we cannot do good for future people by failing to do good for people who exist. (26, 31b)

In response to this challenge and to various crises, however, the Church has come to see charity in terms of reforming social structures as well as helping individuals. The Church faces a special challenge in this because, by her nature, she must not take on the activities of a secular state. The Church remains always in the role of an advisor, but an absolutely essential advisor. Through her teaching role, the Church enables the states to achieve true justice. (27-28a)

However, justice is not enough. There is always need for personal concern, driven by genuine compassion, and the state is incapable of supplying this need. The Church has an eminent role in filling this need. The Church’s lay faithful, however, have the direct responsibility of entering into and building a just society, and their political activities must be informed and moved by love. (28b-29)

Improved communication has made people much more aware of needs throughout the world, and many very effective state agencies and humanitarian organizations have developed which address these needs. The Church has developed many forms of fruitful collaboration with these initiatives, and with other Churches and Ecclesial Communities who work toward these same goals. (30)

This circumstance raises the need for the Church to clearly identify the special characteristics that identify organized Christian charitable activity. It is, “first of all the simple response to immediate needs and specific situations; feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for and healing the sick, visiting those in prison, etc. . . . Yet, . . . human beings always need something more than technically proper care. They need humanity. They need heartfelt concern. . . . Consequently, in addition to their necessary professional training, these charity workers need a `formation of the heart’ . . .Christian charitable activity must [also] be independent of parties and ideologies. . . . the program of Jesusis `a heart which sees’. This heart sees where love is needed and acts accordingly. . . . Charity, furthermore, cannot be used as a means of engaging in . . . proselytism. Love is free; . . . A Christian knows when it is time to speak of God and when it is better to say nothing and to let love alone speak.” (31)

Bishops have the primary responsibility for seeing that the Church’s charitable responsibilities are fulfilled. All who participate in the Church’s charitable work are responsible for doing it out of the love of God and not from ideology, and they are responsible for doing the work in unity with their bishop. (32-34)

Humility is needed to allow the charitable worker to avoid contempt for those being helped and to avoid discouragement at the immensity of the task. Constant prayer is also needed, especially in hard times. (35-38)

“Faith, hope and charity go together. . . . Love is the light and in the end, the only light that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working. Love is possible, and we are able to practice it because we are created in the image of God.” (39)

The saints, especially the Mother of the Lord, give us great examples of living in love, and inspire us to follow their way. In addition, they still live to help us from their place with God. Mary in particular, given to us as our mother by Jesus from the Cross, constantly fulfills her role of mother toward us, constantly helping us to grow and persevere in love. (40-42)

“Mary, Virgin and Mother, shows us what love is and whence it draws its origin and its constantly renewed power.”

Study Questions

Numbers in [square brackets] are section numbers from the encyclical. These questions are not intended to exhaust the content of the encyclical, but to provide opportunity for reflection and discussion on its principal topics.

Introduction [1]

1) What difference does it make whether a person believes or doesn’t believe that God loves him or her?

2) What is the fundamental difference between Christianity and a set of ethical rules?

PART I: The Unity of Love in Creation and in Salvation History

A problem of language [2]

3) What problems do we run into when we use the word “love”?

“Eros” and “agape” _ difference and unity [3-8]

4) Explain “eros” and “agape.”

5) Does the Church stifle or promote love? How?

6) How does love take us beyond ourselves?

7) How do body and soul collaborate in love?

8) Describe some of the stages that love goes through in becoming complete and mature.

9) How does Jesus’ sacrifice represent, “the essence of love and indeed of human life itself”?

10) How can the love that arises from our human desires and the love that descends to us from God be unified?

The newness of biblical faith [9-11]

11) What are the unique characteristics of God’s love shown in Scripture?

12) What do the creation narratives in the Bible tell us about relationships between men and women?

13) How is marriage an image of God’s love?

Jesus Christ _ the incarnate love of God [12-15]

14) How is Jesus’ death an act of love?

15) How specifically does the Eucharist unite us to God?

16) How does the Eucharist move us into loving action for one another?

17) How does New Testament teaching broaden the believer’s obligation to love?

Love of God and love of neighbor [16-18]

18) What practical help does God give the believer for carrying out the duty to love others?

19) How is this help delivered?

20) How can this duty to love others be a joy?

PART II: Caritas: The Practice of Love by the Church as a “Community of Love”

The Church’s charitable activity as a manifestation of Trinitarian love [19]

21) What does, “If you see charity, you see the Trinity” mean?

Charity as a responsibility of the Church [20-25]

22) What is the difference between the command for us to love as individuals and the command to love as a community?

23) How has this communal love been realized in the Church over the years?

24) What are “kerygma-martyria,” “leitourgia,” and “diakonia,” and why are they inseparable?

Justice and charity [26-29]

25) Why have some people asserted that justice and charity are opposed to one another?

26) What is the difference between a person being just and a society being just?

27) What problems arise when political action is not enlightened by faith?

28) What role do Church members have in building a just society?

29) What role does the Church have in building a just society?

30) What does loving personal service give to people that government organized services, in general, cannot provide?

The multiple structures of charitable service in the social context of the present day [30]

31) How has global communication changed the character of charitable work?

The distinctiveness of the Church’s charitable activity [31]

32) What “formation of the heart” is needed by workers in Christian service organizations?

33) How does this change the way the work is done?

34) Should works of charity be used as a means of adding members to the Church? Why, or why not?

Those responsible for the Church’s charitable activity [32-39]

35) What is the bishop’s role in the work of charity?

36) What interior attitudes are needed by people who do this sort of work?

37) How does prayer help develop and sustain these attitudes?

38) Faced with the massive needs in the world, how can the charitable worker have hope?

Conclusion [40-42]

39) What saints have inspired you to greater care for people in need?

40) How can you draw practical strength for service from Mary, the Mother of God?

This study guide may be copied freely, without alteration, for non-commercial purposes.

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Le mariage: Une communion de vie et d’amour

Le mariage: Une communion de vie et d’amour

Lettre pastorale de l’évêque Victor Galeone

Mes chers frères et soeurs en Dieu,

1. Présentement, il y a des assemblées législatives qui considèrent des projets de loi qui pourront redéfinir le mariage comme union équilibrée entre deux adultes peu importe leur sexe. Un projet de loi comme celui-ci mettrait les unions civiles de même sexe au même niveau que le mariage traditionnel entre l’homme et la femme. Le taux de divorce ne cesse de grimper et pour empirer la situation, un couple peut maintenant se procurer un divorce en ligne pour la modique somme de $50 á $300. Tous ces récents dé’veloppements sont des symptômes dun désordre plus grave et plus sérieux. Jusqu’à ce que la racine du désordre ne soit coupée, je crains que nous allons continuer de moissonner les fruits des mariages brisés et des habitudes sexuelles désordonnées tous les niveaux de la société. Quel est ce désordre? La contraception. Cette pratique est tellement répandue qu’elle implique 90% des couples mariés et cela après une période plus ou moins longue et à tous les niveaux de notre société. Puisqu’un des plus grands rôles de l’évêque est d’enseigner, je vous prie de regarder de nouveau ce que l’église affirme à ce sujet et pourquoi elle maintient sa position.

I. Le plan de Dieu à propos du mariage

2. La majorité du peuple croit que la contraception n’a pas d’importance ou du moins qu’elle n’a pas d’effet direct sur la société. C’est tellement le cas, qu’en cernant celle-ci comme désordre on a l’impression de commettre une grande exagération et le fait même d’en discuter la gravité nous expédie dans la catégorie des défenseurs de la Société de ceux qui disent que la terre n’est pas ronde. Il est pourtant vrai que la contraception est un sujet de la plus haute importance. Pour comprendre le fait qu’elle est une action mauvaise, il nous faut approfondir nos connaissances face aux intentions originales du Créateur lui même à propos du mariage. Au début du livre de la Genèse nous apprenons que Dieu a crée le mariage avec deux objectifs particuliers: pour répandre et exprimer la vie et l’amour.

3. Dans le livre de la genèse, il y a deux récits de la création. Le premier se trouve au début du livre, “Dieu créa l’homme à son image, à l’image de Dieu, il le créa; mâle et femelle il les créa” (Gen 1:27). Le prochain verset contient le premier commandement donné par Dieu: “Soyez féconds, multiplies-vous, remplissez la terre.” Alors il est évident que le premier but du mariage est la fécondité ou le don de la vie. Sans l’union d’amour entre l’homme et la femme, la vie humaine cesserait d’exister. Dans le deuxième récit de la création, lequel se trouve dans le deuxième chapitre de la Genèse, nous apprenons que Dieu a aussi pour but du mariage le don de l’amour. Je cite: “Il n’est pas bon que l’homme soit seul; je lui ferai une aide semblable à lui.” (Gen 2:18) Oui, il est vrai que Dieu veut qu’un homme et sa femme deviennent des amis intimes, qui peuvent se supporter lun lautre dans un amour mutuel et durable. Par conséquent, le mariage existe pour transmettre la vie et l’amour.

4. Les deux buts du mariage sont tellement interconnectés qu’ils sont inséparables. Premièrement, souvenons-nous que Jésus enlève toute possibilité de divorce en exprimant les mots suivants: “et les deux deviendront une seule chair. Ainsi, ils ne sont plus deux, mais ils sont une seule chair. Que l’homme donc ne sépare pas ce que Dieu a uni.” (Marc 10;8,9) En d’autres mots, les époux forment une entité organique, comme la tête et le coeur et non pas une entité mécanique, comme la clef dans la serrure. Comme la séparation de la tête ou du coeur dans un corps humain entraînerait la mort de l’organisme, il en est de même avec le divorce. Il faut noter que ce n’est pas le cas lors du retrait d’une clef de sa serrure. Étant donné que Dieu dans le mariage a combiné les deux aspects suivants, le don de l’amour et le don de la vie, il n’est pas plus possible de séparer par la contraception ce que Dieu a uni dans le mariage quil nous est possible de séparer par le divorce ce que Dieu a uni dans le mariage sans entraîner la mort de l’organisme.

II. Le langage corporel de l’amour matrimonial

5. Avant d’examiner ce que l’Église enseigne au sujet de la contraception, j’aimerais faire un à coté. Selon le pape Jean Paul II, Dieu aurait voulu que l’amour matrimonial soit exprimé par un langage spécial le langage corporel de l’acte sexuel. En réalité, la communication sexuelle utilise souvent les mêmes termes que la communication verbale: relations ou rapports (à l’origine: (un échange pour se connaître), concevoir (planifier, imaginer l’idée) etc. Avec cela en tête, posons-nous maintenant quelques questions:

  • Est-il normal pour une femme de se boucher les oreilles par des protèges tympans lorsque son mari lui parle?
  • Est-il normal pour un époux de se couvrir la bouche lorsqu’il parle à son épouse?

Ces exemples sont tellement anormaux qu’ils semblent absurdes. Si un tel comportement se veut anormal lors d’une communication verbale, comment peut-on tolérer une femme qui utilise un diaphragme ou la pilule, ou même un mari qui utilise un condom lors de la communication sexuelle?

6. Pire encore, comment peut-on justifier un mari, qui se fait couper les cordes vocales robustes par un chirurgien, ou une épouse qui se fait enlever les tympans lorsque ceux-ci sont en bonne santé? Comment ces exemples horribles de la communication verbale diffèrent-ils de la vasectomie ou de la ligature de trompes? Le chirurgien n’a t-il pas comme rôle d’enlever un organe seulement s’il est infecté ou s’il menace la vie humaine? Si les testicules ou les ovaires sont sains, comment peut-on justifier d’aller à l’encontre du but pour lequel ils ont été créés. Les bébés feraient-ils maintenant partie des maladies dont il nous faut nous immuniser par la stérilisation?

7. Oui, nous avons été créés à l’image et à la ressemblance de Dieu! Jésus nous a révélé la vie intérieure de Dieu comme étant trinitaire. Par conséquent, le langage corporel de l’acte matrimonial entre l’homme et la femme se doit de refléter la vie intérieure de Dieu, c’est à dire que l’amour mutuel entre le Père et le Fils est l’Esprit Saint. La bible est une histoire d’amour du début la fin. Elle débute par la Genèse avec le mariage d’Adam et Ève et se termine dans l’Apocalypse par le festin du mariage de lagneau- le mariage du Christ avec son Église. De toute éternité, le Seigneur désire ardemment se donner à nous en mariage. Personne n’a su l’illustrer plus clairement que le prophète Isaïe:

“Comme un jeune homme s’unit à une vierge,ainsi tes fils s’uniront à toi; et comme la fiancée fait la joie de son fianc, ainsi tu feras la joie de ton Dieu.” (Isaïe 62:5)

St Paul renforcit ce point lorsqu’il écrit: “Époux, aimez vos femmes, comme le Christ a aimé l’Église et s’est livré lui-même pour elle.” (Eph 5:25) De quelle façon le Christ s’est-il offert pour l’Église? Il s’est offert complètement, jusqu’à la derniére goutte de sang! Il n’a rien retenu. Si les époux doivent aimer leur épouse de la même manière que Jésus, ils ne peuvent retenir quoi que soit, même pas leur fertilité.

III. La contraception: Exprimer le mensonge avec notre corps

8. Puisque Dieu a créé le corps mâle ou femelle afin de transmettre la vie et l’amour, chaque fois que nous allons intentionnellement à l’encontre de ce double but, nous vivons un mensonge. Le langage corporel de l’acte matrimonial dit “je suis complètement à toi “mais la devise contraceptive dit” sauf pour ma fertilité”. Donc l’époux et l’épouse se mentent mutuellement avec leur corps. Pire encore, le couple usurpe le rôle de Dieu. En détournant la raison pour l’acte matrimonial, le couple dit à Dieu “Tu as créé nos corps pour t’aider à transmettre la vie à une âme immortelle, mais tu as fait une erreur, une erreur que nous allons corriger. Tu es peut-être le Dieu de nos vies, mais pas de notre fertilité.”

9. En 1968, le pape Paul VI a essentiellement dit la même chose lorsqu’il a écrit dans son encyclique Humanae Vitae: “Il y a un lien indissoluble entre les deux objectifs du mariage: le don de l’amour (union) et le don de la vie (procréation). Étant donné que Dieu a lui même établi cette doctrine, l’homme ne peut séparer l’union de la procréation lorsqu’il s’agit de l’acte conjugal.” (H.V. No. 12). Le pape Paul a continue à condamner toute forme de contraception comme allant à l’encontre de la dignité humaine. Une vague de protestations s’éleva autant chez les catholiques que chez les non-catholiques réprimandant “ce vieux célibataire du Vatican” pour son manque de connections avec les temps modernes et pour sa détermination à empêcher l’Église d’entrer pleinement dans ce temps nouveau. Mais le Saint Père ne faisait que réitérer l’enseignement intact tel qu’enseigné du début de l’Église, lequel était totalement soutenu par chaque dénomination chrétienne jusqu’à ce que l’église anglicane décide à la conférence de Lambeth en 1930 de rompre son allégeance à cette doctrine. En fait, ce que le Pape voulait exprimer est l’idée suivante: “Il n’est pas bon de séparer ce que Dieu a uni. Tenter d’agir ainsi mettrait l’homme à la place de Dieu ce qui aurait pour conséquence le déclenchement d’une série de maux indescriptibles dans la société.”

10. Plusieurs se sont moqués des prédictions du Pape Paul VI concernant les conséquences de l’utilisation montante de la contraception. Ses prédictions se résumaient ainsi: 1) l’augmentation de l’infidélité conjugale 2) une dégradation générale des moeurs et de la moralité, spécialement chez les jeunes. 3) les femmes seront considérées par leur époux comme des objets sexuels et 4) les gouvernements imposeront massivement des programmes visant au contrôle des naissances. Trente-cinq ans plus tard, la décadence des moeurs se résume ainsi: 1) le taux de divorce a plus que triplé 2) le nombre de maladies transmises sexuellement est passé de 6 à 50 3) La pornographie rapporte plus d’argent que tous les sports professionnels ainsi que toute l’industrie du spectacle mis ensemble 4) Les femmes sont stérilisées à leur insu dans les pays du tiers monde tandis que la Chine se donne une loi d’avant-garde consistant à ne permettre qu’un enfant par couple. Aujourd’hui, même les détracteurs de l’encyclique Humanae Vitae admettent que ses enseignements étaient prophétiques.

11. Plusieurs catholiques qui utilisent diverses méthodes contraceptives diront qu’ils ne commettent rien de mal puisqu’ils ne font qu’obéir aux directives de leur conscience. Aprés tout, l’Église n’enseigne-t–elle pas que nous devons suivre notre conscience pour déterminer si un comportement est bon ou mauvais? Oui, c’est vrai–à la condition que cette conscience soit proprement formée. Pour être encore plus spécifique, chaque conscience doit se conformer aux lois de la nature ainsi qu’aux dix commandements de Dieu, de la même façon que nous devons ajuster nos horloges à l’heure de Greenwich ou à l’heure du soleil. Si une horloge avance trop vite ou trop lentement, ça ne sera pas long que l’heure du coucher se fera à l’aube. Soutenir qu’il nous faut suivre notre conscience individuelle même si de façon claire, elle contredit la loi de Dieu, serait aussi pire que de dire que nous devons maintenant gérer notre vie d’après l’horloge, même si elle nous dit que la nuit est le jour.

IV. La planification naturelle de la famille: Dire la vérité avec notre corps.

12. Je crains que les couples qui utilisent la contraception se sentent durement critiqués par mes propos. En réalité, je ne désire pas vous blâmer pour tout ce qui est arrivé depuis les quatre dernières décennies. Ce n’était pas de votre faute. À quelques exceptions près, nous les évêques et les prêtres sommes à blâmer en raison de notre silence. La lettre suivante reçue d’un jeune père de famille le confirme bien: “Au début de notre mariage, Jan et moi avons utilisé la contraception artificielle, comme la plupart des autres couples d’ailleurs. Dans notre culture actuelle, nous sentions que c’était quelque chose de normal à faire. Nous savions que l’Église s’opposait à la contraception mais personne ne nous avait expliqué pourquoi. Certains prêtres nous ont même dit que c’était une décision personnelle; et que si nous sentions le besoin d’utiliser des méthodes de contraception, c’était acceptable. Les couples ont besoin de se faire expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles la contraception est mauvaise. Personne ne nous a jamais dit que la pilule anticonceptionnelle pouvait avorter un foetus nouvellement conçu sans que personne ne le sache. Personne ne nous a jamais dit que la contraception artificielle est un obstacle majeur dans le dévelopement d’un bon mariage. Nous ne savions pas non plus qu’il existe d’autres alternatives à la contraception qui sont approuvées par l’Église.”

13. Bien que le fait de pratiquer la contraception soit toujours mal, il existe des façons moralement acceptables pour distancer la naissance des enfants.–La planification familiale naturelle. Les couples peuvent régulariser les naissances en s’abstenant de l’acte conjugal durant les périodes fertiles du cycle de la femme. Les instructeurs de cette méthode enseignent aux couples comment identifier les jours de fertilit, lesquels peuvent durer de sept à dix jours par cycle. La planification familiale naturelle comporte beaucoup d’avantages: elle est scientifiquement efficace, elle ne comporte aucun effet secondaire et elle n’implique aucun autre coût que la dépense initial du matériel de base. Les études ont démontré, que si la méthode de planification familiale est bien suivie, elle peut être efficace à 99% lorsqu’il s’agit de distancer les grossesses. Celle-ci est aussi efficace que la Pilule et donne un meilleur résultat que toutes les autres méthodes de contraception dites protectrices. La meilleure partie de tout est que l’époux et l’épouse qui se plient à la volonté de Dieu, découvrent la beauté et le sens de leur fcondité, améliorent leur intimité et apprennent à approfondir leur amour mutuel.

14. Comment les méthodes de régulation des naissances diffèrent-elles des méthodes de contraception? Puisque leur objectif est le même, pourquoi les utiliser? Pour comprendre la différence, il faut réaliser que le fait d’avoir une bonne intention envers une situation, ne justifie pas nécessairement les moyens utilisés pour l’atteindre. Par exemple, deux couples veulent supporter leur famille. Le premier le fait dans un travail légitime tandis que l’autre le fait en vendant des drogues illégales. Supposons que deux personnes veulent perdre du poids. La première personne le fait en suivant un régime sévère tandis que l’autre le fait en se gaffant de nourriture pour ensuite se faire vomir. Retournons donc si vous voulez à l’analogie du langage corporel: Dire qu’il n’y a pas de différence entre la Planification Familiale Naturelle et la contraception serait l’équivalent de dire que de garder le silence est l’équivalent de raconter un mensonge. Le pape Paul VI a exprimé cette idée d’une manière plus poétique: “Lorsqu’on connaît le don de l’amour conjugal tout en respectant les lois de la conception (procréation), nous admettons à ne pas être les maîtres de la source de la vie mais bien les ministres du dessein établi par le Créateur.”

15. Que diriez-vous d’un scientifique qui découvre un remède pour le cancer et qui refuse de le partager? Étant donné le cancer spirituel qui attaque nos familles aujourd’hui, comment peut-on expliquer l’hésitation de nos évêques et de nos prêtres à partager et répandre la bonne nouvelle de l’enseignement complet de l’Église à propos de la vie et de l’amour conjugal? Regardons les statistiques: Aujourd’hui, au moins 30% des mariages se terminent en divorce compare à 3% chez ceux qui utilisent la Planification familiale naturelle. Depuis 1960, lorsque l’usage de la contraception s’est propagé dramatiquement, nous avons vu un parallèle avec l’accroissement du taux de divorce. Comment peut-on expliquer l’augmentation si dramatique des mariages brisés? Comme nous l’avons vu au paragraphe No.4, le fait de séparer ce que Dieu a uni dans l’acte conjugal par la contraception apporte certainement des répercussions chez ceux qu’Il a uni par le mariage–notamment le divorce. La solution est claire. Nous avons besoin de courage.

16. Afin de contrer le silence concernant les enseignements de l’Église à ce sujet, en tant qu’évêque, je demande que les directives suivantes soient mises en place dans notre diocèse:

  • Tous les ministres pastoraux devront étudier le message libérateur de la Théologie du Corps par Jean Paul II, afin de le partager avec les autres.
  • Les confesseurs devront se familiariser avec le “Vade Mecum” pour les confesseurs qui sont concernés par certains aspects de la moralit conjugale.
  • Lorsque c’est possible, les prêtres et les diacres devront présenter les enseignements de l’Église concernant le mariage dans leur homélie. Ils devront y inclure pourquoi la contraception est mauvaise.
  • L’enseignement des méthodes de planifications familiales naturelles devra faire partie des cours de préparation au mariage.
  • Les cours de religion au secondaire ainsi que les classes de RIAC devront inclure l’enseignement de l’Église à propose des comportements sexuels condamnés par celle-ci incluant la contraception.

17. En conclusion, j’aimerais citer un article de Roberta Roanne paru dans le ‘National Catholic Reporter.’ (31 oct. 1986) Elle commença par l’affirmation suivante: “Oui, j’étais vivante et féconde en 1968. J’avais 19 ans et je savais que la pilule était un cadeau du Ciel et qu’Humanae Vitae n’était qu’un tas de conneries. La pilule allait éliminer les grossesses chez les adolescents, les désaccords maritaux et tous les problèmes de population du globe.” Après avoir raconté son odyssée de mettre au monde trois enfants pendant qu’elle passait de la pilule au stérilet puis aux condoms elle raconte: “Finalement, mon mari et moi sommes arrives à un point tournant. Alors que nous vivions le temps le plus difficile de notre mariage, nous avons fait la rencontre de gens extraordinaires qui nous ont invites à donner notre vie complètement au Seigneur et de pratiquer la chasteté l’inétrieur de notre mariage. Cela nous a tellement surpris car nous croyions que ça voulait dire de sacrifier notre vie sexuelle. Ce n’est pas ce que ça veut dire. Ça veut dire de respecter l’union corporelle comme un acte sacré. Ça voulait aussi dire que tout en agissant en couple amoureux l’un de l’autre nous devions le faire en incluant une admiration respectueuse l’un envers l’autre et non agir comme des chats en chaleur. Pour mon mari et moi, ça voulait dire de pratiquer la planification familiale naturelle…et je ne peux pas vous donner d’illusions, c’était une discipline très difficile pour nous. La planification familiale naturelle et une attitude de chasteté dans le mariage nous ont ouvert tout un nouveau monde. Ce changement a créé des liens entre mon mari et moi qui sont tellement forts et tellement profonds que c’est difficile à expliquer. Parfois c’est difficile mais ça nous rapproche encore davantage. Nous nous portons l’un l’autre en estime respectueuse. Et lorsque nous nous accouplons, c’est chaque fois comme une lune de miel. C’est triste de réaliser que j’avais déjà plus de 35 ans lorsque j’ai réalisé que l’Église avait raison après tout. Quand je dis l’Église je ne veux pas dire l’Église qui glisse de Charlie Curran, mais bien la vraie Église, celle que nous rencontrons dans ‘l’association du couple à couple’ l’Église catholique. L’Église a raison face à la contraception (c’est nul), elle dit vrai face au mariage (c’est un sacrement), elle a raison face au bonheur humain (ça circule dans les veines–non, ça envahit tout l’être humain lorsqu’on cherche à suivre la volonté de Dieu). Cela nous a permis de vivre notre foi en profondeur. Cela a ouvert nos coeurs pour aimer vraiment.”

Roberta Roane est simplement en train de répéter ce que St Paul a dit il y a plusieurs siècles: “Ne savez-vous pas que votre corps est le temple du Saint Esprit qui est en vous et qui vous vient de Dieu et que vous ne vous appartenez pas? Quelqu’un a payé le prix de votre rachat. Glorifiez donc Dieu par votre corps.” (1 Cor 6:19,20)

+ Victor Galeone

Évêque de St Augustin

10 juillet 2003

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My Beautiful Daughter Letter

My beautiful daughter,

I have created you in my image and likeness. 1 You are unique and wonderfully made. 2 I see you and accept you as you are. 3 My love for you is everlasting. 4 Though I know and see all, 5 I thirst for your love and long for you to spend time with Me. Tell me your hopes, fears, and longings. Let Me see you, let Me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet, and you are lovely. 6 Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you. 7 Whenever you need me, I will rescue you 8 and bear your pain. 9 I will give you hope and encourage your heart. 10 Allow Me to seal your heart in my love. 11

You are beautiful, my daughter, and there is no blemish in you. 12 You are a lily among the thorns. 13 You are an enclosed garden, a fountain sealed. 14 This garden is enclosed for the sharing of amazing love and intimacy between you and your spouse. Do not stir up love before its own time. 15 Trust me with your love story, and allow Me to bring you the truly great love you desire. I made man and woman to be gifts for each other. 16 Prepare yourself now to be a gift to your spouse who will cherish, protect, and honor you. My beloved child, if you have made mistakes in the past or have been wounded by another, come to Me and let Me hold and heal you. 17 I am full of mercy and compassion. 18 Behold I make all things new. 19 I will give you all that I am and all that you need. 20

I have shaped your days, before they came to be. 21 Seek my face, 22 and I will lead you to the vocation for which I created you. If I call you to be my bride alone, rejoice and open your heart to let me be your perfect Bridegroom. I take nothing away, but give everything in return. Know that, in whichever vocation I have for you, I am to be your first Love, and only I can completely fulfill you. Delight in Me, and I will give you the desires of your heart. 23

I am the Potter and you are the clay. 24 Allow Me to mold you into the woman I created you to be. Look to Mary for a perfect example of womanhood. Strive to live out her virtues and allow her to lead you ever closer to my heart. May all you do reflect the dignity that I have given you. Dress in a way that honors your beauty. 25 The world is in desperate need of you to show it my love, and I have placed you in my Kingdom for such a time as this. 26

I will be your rock, your refuge, 27 and your firm foundation. 28 When you are afraid, doubtful, or impatient, cling to Me and my promise that my plan for you still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint. 29 Keep your eyes and heart fixed on Me 30 so you will not miss the many gifts I have for you. I have crowned you with my love and compassion, 31 my beauty 32 and splendor. 33 I love you and will bless you with every spiritual blessing under the heavens. 34

With all my love,

God, your Father

Scripture References

1. Genesis 1:27

2. Psalm 139:14

3. Romans 15:7

4. Jeremiah 31:3

5. Psalm 139:1-4

6. Song of Songs 2:14

7. James 4:8

8. Psalm 91:14

9. Isaiah 53:4

10. 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

11. Song of Songs 8:6

12. Song of Songs 4:7

13. Song of Songs 2:2

14. Song of Songs 4:12

15. Song of Songs 2:7

16. Genesis 2:18

17. Psalm 147:3

18. James 5:11

19. Revelation 21:5

20. 2 Peter 1:3

21. Psalm 139:16

22. Psalm 27:8, 1 Chronicles 16:11

23. Psalm 37:4

24. Isaiah 64:8

25. 1 Timothy 2:9

26. Esther 4:14

27. Psalm 71:3

28. Matthew 7:24

29. Habakkuk 2:3

30. Hebrews 12:2

31. Psalm 103:4

32. Isaiah 61:3

33. Isaiah 62:3

34. Ephesians 1:3

2007 One More Soul www.omsoul.com (800) 307-7685

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My Son Letter

My son,

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you.1 I created you in my image and likeness.2 Out of nothing, I formed your body into a temple for the Holy Spirit,3 and I breathed life into you.4 I shaped your mind, your talents, your emotions, and I formed a plan for your life that fits you perfectly.5 You are my son whom I love; remain in my love.6

Behold I stand at the door and knock.7 Will you let Me in?8 Out of love I created you, and out of love I seek to be with you.9 I have called you by name,10 and given you the choice to love Me or to reject Me.11 I ask that you open your heart to Me and follow Me.12 What will separate you from Me?13 I have seen your past, and I know your future. Though you may stray from Me, I am rich in mercy and grace.14 Come back to Me with a humble heart, ask for forgiveness, and you will be forgiven.15

You have a deep fierce heart.16 I gave you this heart for the battles that you will fight.17 Like Me, you are a warrior.18 You will be attacked by temptation, loneliness, and your own desires. So put on my armor so that you will be able to stand firm against the evil one.19 I have clothed you with power from on High.20 Pick up the sword of prayer and the shield of faith. Call out to Me, and I will give you courage under trial, resistance under temptation, and patience to endure. With Me, you have what it takes.21

You have been called to guard22 and protect the purity that I have placed within you and around you. Guard the purity found within you, and only then can you guard the purity and beauty of women. Give your heart to Me; surrender to Me; allow Me to form your desires and transform your fears. At the perfect time I will bring you a woman for whom you can give your whole life, or you will join with Me in total love for my Bride, the Church. Your bride will be a gift for you.23 Prepare now to fight for her and defend her, to love her and encourage her in holiness. Let all you do reflect the dignity that I have given to you, and honor those around you. You are called to lay down your life as I have laid down my life for you.24 There is no greater love than this that a man should lay down his life for another.25 It is in losing your life that you will gain it.26 Will you lay down your life for Me?

I love you.27 Trust in me.28 Trust that the plan I have for you will bring you the peace the world cannot give.29 Take delight in my plan for you, and I will grant you your hearts desires,30 and you will become the man I created you to be. Walk with Me, as I walk with you. Endure to the end, and we shall dwell together in my Kingdom forever.31

With all my love,

God, your Father

Scripture References

1. Psalm 139:13

2. Genesis 1:27

3. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

4. Genesis 2:7

5. Jeremiah 29:11

6. John 15:9

7. Revelations 3:20

8. Luke 11:9

9. Luke 19:10

10. Isaiah 62:2

11. John 6:67-68

12. Matthew 19:21

13. Romans 8:35

14. Ephesians 2:18

15. Luke 5:20, Matthew 9:2, 26:28

16. Proverbs 20:5

17. 1 Peter 5:8

18. Exodus 5:3

19. Ephesians 6:1017

20. Luke 24:49

21. 1 Corinthians 10:13

22. Genesis 2:15

23. Genesis 2:18

24. Ephesians 5:25

25. John 15:13

26. Matthew 10:39

27. John 3:16, 15:9

28. John 14:1

29. John 14:27

30. Psalm 37:4

31. Matthew 24:13

2007 One More Soul www.omsoul.com (800) 307-7685

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Dandelion and Rose Poster

Download a pdf version of this poster by clicking on the pdf link above

Spreading the Culture of Death seems to be as easy as growing dandelions, while building the Civilization of Love seems to be as tough as growing prize roses. Going the easy way, however, yields very bitter fruit, and taking the more challenging path brings fulfillment of all our best heart’s desires. With these pictures, we at One More Soul are trying to show where the Culture of Death comes from (widespread contraceptive use) and what it will take to promote a healthy society (training ourselves and others in living by chastity). The good news is that this (huge) task is doable–millions of youth are responding eagerly to the message of keeping sexual love for marriage and thousands of couples have turned from contraception to Natural Family Planning. Knowing where the problem is and what to do about it, we can challenge the current culture, AND WIN!

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Teaching Fertility Appreciation class diagram (pdf version)

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Annunciation Flyer

This is the flyer One More Soul is using to promote celebration of the Annunciation, which we think of as the ultimate pro-life celebration. We welcome you to look this over and use it to start your own movement of life affirming worship where you are. May the Lord Jesus, whose Incarnation made all human life sacred, convict all hearts of life’s true value.

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Medical Residency Review Spreadsheet

This spreadsheet contains comments about various residency programs concerning their friendliness or unfriendliness to medical training in which Natural Family Planning is the exclusive means for fertility management. This is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and you will need that program or another spreadsheet program to open it

If you wish to add comments to the spreadsheet or modify comments you already placed there, please include your comments/changes in an e-mail to OMSoul@OMSoul.com and start the subject line with “Medical Residency comments”.>.

Many thanks to all who have participated in this project.

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Divorce Rate Graph and History Table

When use of the contraceptive pill saturated US society during the years 1960 through 1980, there was an increase in the US divorce rate that followed the increase in pill use with remarkable conformity. Various social scientists have concluded that this is no coincidence. This document includes a graph of the US divorce rate from 1880 to 2002 and a table of historical events of these times that shed some light on the story the graph tells.

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Read a commentary in Steve Koob’s Blog, Steve is our director and founder.

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Homilies from Called to Give Life

Homilies from Called to Give Life

Here are sixteen homilies dealing with morality for married couples and with contraception in particular. They are offered here for the use of priests and others who might find them useful. The printable version of the homilies (see above) can be opened in Microsoft Word and saved or edited from there. For those who do not have Word, the html text on this page can be copied and pasted into any word processor.

Additional homilies can be found on the God’s Plan For Life website on the homily page. That site also offers other important pro-life resources.

(more…)

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True Love… How Will I Know? study guide

True Love. . . How Will I Know? is a talk designed specifically for high school teens. Patty Schneier invites teens to learn the meaning of real love, using four words: Free, Faithful, Total and Fruitful. With Christ as the supreme example, Patty explains how we are called to love one another as Christ loved us, in and through our bodies! True love, the “real thing,” speaks to the deepest desires of our hearts. We want it; we were created for this authentic love. But it is only when we know what true love is—and what true love communicates—that we can recognize a counterfeit. In discussing the many counterfeits that abound in our culture, Patty demonstrates how they pale in comparison with true love. She also shows how they lead directly to abortion and a culture of death. This talk is filled with personal stories and real-life examples. It directly addresses the many pressures that teens face, and equips them with the knowledge and tools needed to withstand these pressures. But most of all, this talk will help teens decide for themselves that the “real thing” is worth the wait! (more…)

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