Can churches promote natural family planning?

Under the Reproductive Health Law, we have asked whether the government could meaningfully promote natural family planning (NFP). The same question can be raised for churches and faith-based organizations. Again based on our pastoral experience over the past 12 years, several recommendations can be made:

• Church programs should promote NFP in a systematic way, with an outreach to more remote areas. Practically all dioceses include a topic on NFP in pre-Cana seminars to prepare couples for marriage. But the one or two hours allotted are not sufficient to enable couples to understand, much less adopt, NFP as a way of family life. Furthermore, setting up one NFP center for the whole diocese is not enough to reach out to remote barangays.

Standardized modules in the local language and training manuals with visual aids for seminars are what are needed. Resident volunteer counselors from surrounding barangays may also be trained so that NFP is shared even in the most remote areas. The Archdiocese of Cagayan de Oro has developed a training manual. We have followed a six-step program that now reaches nearly all our 60 parishes.

• NFP promotion should provide information on all scientifically based methods, including modern simplified methods. As science progresses, more NFP methods are being developed. The efficacy of earlier methods based on daily charting of body temperature or cervical mucus secretions has been time-tested, but many adopters have expressed difficulty in following the daily recording. On the other hand, the Standard Days Method, as a simplified improvement of the earlier calendar rhythm method, has gained much wider acceptability. In the final analysis, couples should be given the freedom to choose the kind of NFP method most suitable to them.

• With their cultural-religious traditions, faith-based organizations can offer a wholistic values formation for NFP adoption. Motivation for adopting NFP is crucial for its sustainability. This entails an appreciation of human sexuality, indeed a “theology of the body.” It also involves mutual respect between spouses, openness to life, and acknowledgement of God’s procreative plan for human society. NFP as well as the government’s RH program touches on some of the most sacred aspects of human living—i.e., marriage and family, procreation of new life, and God’s loving providence. These are best presented to aspiring

couples by faith-based organizations.

• The goal for NFP promotion is responsible parenthood. Parents are responsible for the number and welfare of their children. Responsible family planning is a goal endorsed by churches as well as the RH Law. Through the exercise of responsible parenthood, the population issue, if any, can be addressed in a family-oriented way. Responsible parenthood not only includes respect for human life from the moment of conception but also extends to the entire period of rearing children until the age of maturity.

• Faith-based organizations should make information on NFP available to the poorer sectors of society. Church communities include the poorer sectors of society. In many senses, the promotion of NFP is a propoor measure. NFP methods are cost-free once these have been learned. It is sustainable; mothers can pass on the practice of NFP to their daughters. NFP is devoid of health risks. It also promotes better communication between spouses.

National demographic studies indicate that the lower-income quintiles of families express on the average a higher number of desired children, but also have a higher incidence of unwanted pregnancies that may lead to abortions. Those in the poorest quintile want 3.3 children on the average but actually end up with 5.2 children, thus having almost two children that are unexpected or unwanted. Helping poor families achieve through NFP their desired number of children can be a first step in alleviating their poverty situation and, at the same time, enabling them to become truly responsible parents.

• In NFP promotion, faith-based organizations can engage with government agencies to reach out to more couples and to provide an alternative program. The RH Law states that the government should also support NFP according to the needs and preferences of couples themselves. From our pastoral experience, many government agencies are ready and willing to promote NFP. They can set aside funding and personnel for this purpose. They have also asked for assistance from the local church in terms of values formation seminars and modules on NFP methods.

Relating to the government in this way is not for us  collaboration, with the connotation that the church is working under the government’s program. Rather, we call it engagement, in that the church maintains its autonomy with its own NFP program and pastoral guidelines. While maintaining their principled stand, faith-based organizations can enter into a positive, yet critical, engagement with the government in promoting NFP.

This form of engagement can more effectively address the three felt needs of couples today: they want to plan their families; they prefer NFP; and they want to choose among NFP methods. Moreover, a fourth need can be addressed:

Couples appreciate the values formation of church communities.

Over all, faith-based organizations can work with the government to promote NFP on a wider scale and to give couples an alternative to contraceptives. On the other hand, NFP is not an exclusive program of church communities. NFP is, after all, the responsibility of all family-oriented groups, including the government and women’s organizations, to promote as a valid,  viable,  and  vital  option for many couples today.

Antonio J. Ledesma, SJ, is the archbishop of Cagayan de Oro.