…this blogger at Young Adult Catholics (little bit of a misnomer, since they reject many of the Churches teachings outright) seems to think it’s not.

I like that she puts the words “liberal Catholic” and “conservative Catholic,” thereby questioning the validity of political terms imposed on theological terms (The Church is not liberal or conservative; it’s Catholic–Universal). While she supports a person’s choice to choose natural methods of family planning (I got warm fuzzies), she remains neutral on the moral issues (namely the fact that most contraceptives are abortafacients to begin with, plus contra-love factor). I can deal with people who are against the Church’s teaching or don’t understand it, but someone who’s totally neutral? There’s nothing lamer than lukewarmness.

I appreciate that she’s trying to be loving and to extend an olive leaf, but her amicable branch is a thinly disguised vine of vitriol. There’s nothing more dangerous than indifference. A few words from wiser souls:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.–Our Lord Jesus, Gospel according to St. Matthew 10:34

The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.–George Bernard Shaw, Nobel Prize Laureate

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all — the apathy of human beings.–Hellen Keller, author, political activist, lecturer

Nothing is so fatal to religion as indifference. –Edmund Burke, philosopher & statesman

At the bottom of enmity between strangers lies indifference.–Soren Kirkegaard, philosopher & theologian

The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.–Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate & author

It’s worth checking out for a minute. Take the “What’s your method?” poll, and comment away! There’s a nice potpourri of the usual unsubstantiated overpopulation claims, bad theology of marriage & sex (the r who “have no authority on the sex issue”), but there are a few nice counter comments. My favorite is,

As a website that promotes progressive forward thinking for 20-30 year old Catholics, I invite you to think forward to Dr. Janet Smith’s take on contraception and natural family planning…

Mr. Dal Broi, chemist with courage

If you live anywhere near East Griffith NSW (west of Syndey and north of Melbourne, I think) in Australia, bring your prescription to Trevor Dal Broi, one of many chemists (pharmacists) whose personal and moral beliefs (which happen to be religious) forbid him for prescribing contraception of any kind.

This, of course, makes him the enemy of many whose secular devotion to contraception, sprinkled with a little anti-Christian prejudice, is a kind of tyrrany over a person’s right to exercise their conscience and religion.

According to an Australian blogger from the same town of some 16,000 residents, there are about five pharamacies serving the town, which isn’t exactly depriving the fair citizenry of their compacts of carcinogens.

My favorite quote is from Miss Alison Dance, 18, who believes it’s wrong for someone to exercise their conscience. My guess is that 1) She’s never actually read the pamphlet inside her Pill packet or researched the drawbacks of condom usage; 2) She’s not thought more than 30 seconds about her attitudes and beliefs about sex and contraception, and 3) She feels inconvenienced because someone else has spent more than 30 seconds critically thinking about it, making her ride her bike six more blocks.

According to Freerebulic.com, Mr. Dal Broi will contineu to prescribe contraception that is needed for medical reasons.

The best quote comes from Bob Laird, executive director of another pharmacy, via the Catholic News Agency,

“Birth control is not good health care.  Birth control makes healthy reproductive organs sick and prevents the marital act from completion.  This is not healthcare.  Birth control is a lifestyle choice…”

Amen. Contraception is a lifestyle choice. Some feel it’s more essential than others, but I advocate the ability to make that choice or choose to advocate non-contraceptive family planning, as Mr. Dal Broi does.

Last note: The Catherine of Siena Institute has a great blog post on this story, and ends by encouraging people to support other people who make couragous decisions based on their convictions.

I support Trevor Dal Broi.

Despair.com has a design for every corporate misstep.

A Catholic German Bank, Pax Bank, got caught with their lederhosen down recently when it was discovered post-facto that they’d invested money in three companies against Christian morals. One is a tobacco company (not exactly an intrinsic evil but whatever), one a foreign contractor who makes atomic bombs (ouch), and definitely the worst, in my opinion, the atomic bomb of the family: a contraceptive manufacturer, Wyeth.

Is this really a surprise that this is going on, especially in Europe, which has a high rate of secularization and some of the lowest rates of fertility? No. What is a surprise is that it was found out and reported. Who is the provost of the Cologne Cathedral, who evidently was a main instigator of this discovery? Is it the same as what is called the “cardinal provost”? If so, word on the street is that he’s one of those clergymen who rocks his faith for real. Maybe he needs to come talk to Catholic Charities in the US…

• A little coverage of this in the BBC (Note the caption of the Pill stock photo doesn’t say, “The Catholic Church supports the unity of marriage and procreation.” Also note the media’s self-aggrandizement.)
• MSN also does as little as possible to explain why the Church has been against contraception from the beginning.

[This article appeared in the July/ August issue of Family Foundations Magazine.]

[Update: For future installments in this series, bookmark or RSS this blog.]

When is the last time you saw a movie about Natural Family Planning (NFP)? (No, “Cheaper By the Dozen” doesn’t count!)

Now name a movie about contraception. Right. There are any number of birth control movies and documentaries out there, but one especially comes to mind. Deborah Kerr was the iconic chaste love interest in 1957’s “An Affair to Remember,” but just over a decade later she played a much less virtuous female lead as Prudence in “Prudence and the Pill.”

Ironically released just two months before the promulgation of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae Vitae in 1968, Prudence and its adulterous premise reflected the main stream acceptance and popularity of the contraceptive pill, known already simply as “the Pill,” and signaled a sign of the times. Forty years and hundreds of billions of dollars later, the contraceptive business thrives and its popularity persists.

We don’t need a Gallup poll to tell us about the unpopularity or unawareness of NFP. It’s the butt of jokes, shrugged off by the average physician, scoffed at by clergy, and perennially ignored by most. However, it’s helpful to the proactive NFP promoter to know where we are in order to figure out where we’re going. Let’s take a look at the numbers we do have. Though there’s a real lack of NFP research out there, statistical advances have been made in recent years, actually earning NFP its own place separate from the Rhythm method (finally!).

Concerning usage, a 2004 report sponsored by the Center for Disease Control and published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services puts NFP, listed as “periodic abstinence—natural family planning” as used by .2% of women ages 15-44 in 2002. Out of approximately 61 million users, that’s 123, 000 strong of natural family planning users, more or less. The Guttmacher Institute, Planned Parenthood’s research arm, puts their 2002 number of NFP users at 133,000. Either way, that would fill a couple stadiums, but it’s nothing compared the 11.6 million women on the Pill, and 10.3 million women sterilized.

If the sheer numbers of people not using NFP weren’t a big enough indicator of the work ahead of us, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), a sociological research group at Georgetown, has got a little study to wake us up. According a study released in October 2007 (“Marriage in the Catholic Church: a survey of U.S. Catholics”), the interest in NFP of currently married Catholics is 8%.

Before we analyze what seems to be a low ebb in NFP awareness, let’s look at some strengths of the NFP movement and its awareness efforts.

Dr. Pia de Sollenni, a doctor of sacred theology, is also a consultant on women’s health issues, and she is quick to point out the success of grassroots efforts: “The individual methods have done the most in terms of education…the Couple to Couple League, Creighton Method…they reach out at the community level.”

This is certainly true on a global basis. The groups that made the most impact in paving the way for NFP were people like John and Lynn Billings, John & Sheila Kipley, Mercedes Wilson, whose groups and successors have been the grassroots educators and local public relations agents across the globe.

Also representing NFP from a faith-based foundation are the diocesan Family life and NFP offices of the world and nation. Therese Notare, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Director of the NFP Office, has been promoting NFP for well over twenty years. She has high standards for the ideal diocesan NFP office, but said she’s had “the privilege to know these kind of diocesan NFP coordinators and their teachers!”

There are too many fruitful diocesan efforts to name them all, but allow me to give a few examples. One very simple tool is the diocesan NFP Newsletter, which serves to update people on office activities, relay new NFP studies and news, as well as share information that helps NFP teachers and promoters to spread the word about NFP. The diocese of Richmond in Virginia has had an excellent newsletter for a number of years, and in the October 2005 issue (they’re all available online), former coordinator Misty Mealy published an article titled, “Beyond the Bulletin—Creative Ways and Places to Promote NFP,” which lists anything from local magazines to Mothers of Preschoolers Groups, the La Leche League to Natural Foods Cooperatives.

Another great example of promotional initiative is the diocese of LaCrosse in Wisconsin. In Archbishop Burke’s homeland and former see, the NFP Coordinator, Alice Heinzen, has been promoting NFP using radio spots with success.

One particular diocesan group who’s exceeded expectations is Judith Leonard’s diocesan team in Witchita, Kansas. Diocese of Wichita, KS test marketed a campaign to promote NFP in 2003. Underwritten by Family of the Americas Foundation through the Pax et Bonum Foundation, their goal was to test market a strategy to reach out the entire community (including Hispanics) with various marketing and public relations tools. They developed and released radio ads, print ads, four billboards, and other publicity. Their slogan was simple: “99% effective. 100% natural. Your body knows, ™” which is featured with a photograph of a woman on the edge of a bed enjoying the scent of a rose.

Their basic but very well planned campaign yielded a 500% increase in call volume, and a marked increase in the number of couples receiving NFP instruction. According to the campaign profile published in the Catholic Social Science Review , “The campaign revealed a hunger for an alternative to artificial birth control. People want to know and are responsive when NFP is presented in an attractive, secular format.”

In my next article in this series, I’ll discuss where we’re falling short as promoters and marketers of NFP, and what we can do to curb the credibility crisis of NFP.

Contrary to popular belief and contemporary despair, great success in promoting NFP is possible. You are not alone when you hope for it. It is absolutely possible and NFP, when promoted with confidence and magnanimity, is a means for achieving or postponing pregnancy and healing disease and infertility in a way that respects peoples’ morals, bodies and marriages.

However, when sharing our fervor we should also practice patience. The profile authors of Wichita’s campaigned cautioned that marketing NFP “…is not like marketing a soft drink. The success or failure of the NFP campaign can only be determined over time, perhaps even years, since NFP involves a process of maturation—both in relationship with God and inter-spousal relationships.”

I invite you to a journey of radical intimacy and reckless hope. It will cost you not less than everything, but in shedding light on the world’s wounded souls and bodies, you will find God’s dazzling purpose for you. Give your obstacles, lack of funding, illnesses and everything g else to God, and He will bring you into a gorgeous garden of ordinary miracles in your work and apostolate.

The NFP credibility crisis is, above all, a crisis of faith, but it is also a crisis of personal initiative, creative solutions and professional finesse. While the Church and promoters of NFP are consummate underdogs, we should not shrink to share what we know to be good, true and beautiful.

NFP may not have a Deborah Kerr, and hasn’t yet reached the fame or endorsement of Hollywood or Sundance. One might ask, would we ever want to? It may not be our primary goal, but if Theology of the Body is changing peoples’ lives and inspiring art, why can’t NFP? The answer is it can. And it does.

In his Letter to Artists John Paul II wrote, “All men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life. In a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.”  You may not be a fine artist or performer, but you are the artist of your soul, working under a great Master. Be not afraid, and go forward to promote free, total, faithful and fruitful love, and in doing that you will be an icon of the Most Holy Trinity. That’s not a red carpet line; it’s a heavenly promise.

I’ve been remiss to post something about this AMAZING one-day conference happening in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine on Sunday, August 2. So, here it is.

Top Five Reasons to Go to the St. Gianna Conference

5. Archbishop Raymond Burke will be there. Meet the big cheese (he’s from Wisconsin!) of the Holy See’s highest court. He’s a dang holy man, too, and preaches with gentle fire. Last time I heard him preach at a sacred arts conference I cried.

4. The stunning art and architecture of the Shrine will leave you breathless and prayerful, and it will restore your faith in the sacred arts (you will not confuse the shrine with a parking garage from the outside).

3. If you’re trying to conceive, St. Gianna has been a powerful intercessor for this. In fact, in the painting of her by Neil Carlin (above), Mr. Carlin used children for models who were conceived through her intercession! There will be a special blessing for those who wish to conceive.

2. You’ll get to hear and meet St. Gianna’s son, PierLuigi. How many times have you met the son of a saint?

1. You need to learn more about this very recent saint, called a “Martyr of Maternal Love.” (Another post I did on St. Gianna for mother’s day here.)

I just re-listened to a CD that One More Soul included in an order as a freebie a while back, and wanted to share some thoughts.

About the CD:
Title: “Why Contraception Matters”
Speaker: Stephen Patton, M.A., J.D., with introduction by Bishop Victor Galeone
Sponsored by: Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida
Running Time: 60 minutes

Synopsis:Practically speaking, widespread use of contraception has led directly to massive increases of divorce and abortion. Personal union and yearning for fertility are written physically into the structure of sexual relations, and shutting down one of these aspects hurts the whole relationship. Stephen Patton gives an introduction to the pastoral situation of many–perhaps most–clergy, calling this prototypical priest, “Father Friendly,” giving a humorous but all too true insight into clergy’s general faithfulness but rampant lukewarmness. He likewise gives an introduction to the average Catholic parishioner couple, “Mr. & Mrs. Friendly,” a witty and all-too-accurate description of good intentions and Humanae Vitae ignorance out there. He shows us two things. First, why contraception really is a big deal, and how it is intrinsically linked to the evil of abortion. Second, he asks us all to take an honest look at the contraception crisis in the Church and wider culture today, and invites us to consider what we can do about it. There are practical, workable steps we can take to regain the overflowing life that God desires for us.

Strengths: Mr. Patton is a knowledgeable, educated and very well spoken man, and Director of the Family Life and Respect Life Office for the Diocese of St. Augustine in Florida. He is introduced by his Bishop, showing a great sign of respect, faithfulness and approval (although a degree from Franciscan University of Steubenville  bodes well also). The introduction is very witty, and a spot-on criticism of the rampant lukewarmness, indifference and ignorance of pastors and parishioners of Catholic (and I think this parallels to some extent non-Catholic Christian parishes as well) serves as a prelude to a deeper pastoral examination of conscience on how well Catholics (clergy and laypeople alike) know and promote the Church’s teachings, and the beauty of NFP.

Weaknesses: This is not necessarily the CD you want to give to someone who’s skeptical about NFP or the Church’s teaching. While this definitely could be useful and thought-provoking to someone with an open heart or a honest seeker, it may come off as preachy or critical to someone who’s first hearing about the teaching. Also, his style is not very animated (I had the sense he was reading his talk), and a bit droll. His message is very powerful, nevertheless, but it may not engage a young adult who’s not educated on this subject. Also, there’s a couple phrases that made me giggle/ cringe, like the marvelous “fertility dance” analogy that certainly is very true but seemed a little over the top and hyperbolic considering the tone and context.

Warning: This could be negative or positive depending on your viewpoint, but Patton, after some introduction, goes into a little detail about the nature of the nuptial union and orgasm. Screen this before giving to a young person or sensitive adult.

Recommendation:He makes some very poignant observations and some very challenging statements that’s worth a listen by every clergyman, DRE, youth director, NFP teacher and NFP apostle. Get it for free with your One More Soul order.

If you’ve been interested in the Theology of the Body, of have studied it but not really dug in, there’s a three-week online course through Catholic Distance University that might interest you:

Marriage and the Complementarity of Men and Women (Noncredit)

Online Seminar – July 13 – Aug. 3, 2009

This online interactive seminar course will focus on the complementarity of man and woman as revealed in marriage, in the roles of motherhood and fatherhood, and in the community of the world, Church, and family. John Paul II’s exhortations, letters, and encyclical related to the family will be integrated with each of the themes. Students who complete this seminar course should be able to describe the complementarity of man and woman in relation to the marital act, to the receiving and welcoming of new human life, and to the locus of authority in the family.

General Information:
This three week interactive online seminar can be accessed day or night at your convenience. Participants will be given a weekly presentation to read, a weekly reflection question to answer, an opportunity to present questions to the instructor, a chapel meditation to consider, and a social area to meet and exchange ideas with participants from all over the English speaking world. 

Marriage and the Complementarity of Men and Women (Noncredit)
Online Seminar – July 13 – Aug. 3, 2009

This online interactive seminar course will focus on the complementarity of man and woman as revealed in marriage, in the roles of motherhood and fatherhood, and in the community of the world, Church, and family. John Paul II’s exhortations, letters, and encyclical related to the family will be integrated with each of the themes. Students who complete this seminar course should be able to describe the complementarity of man and woman in relation to the marital act, to the receiving and welcoming of new human life, and to the locus of authority in the family.

General Information:
This three week interactive online seminar can be accessed day or night at your convenience. Participants will be given a weekly presentation to read, a weekly reflection question to answer, an opportunity to present questions to the instructor, a chapel meditation to consider, and a social area to meet and exchange ideas with participants from all over the English speaking world.

The instructor of the course is the distinguished Dr. William May. Now, you may be thinking, how is a man teaching a class on complementarity between men and women? It turns out, behind every great man is a great woman, so even if you don’t see Mrs. May in the classroom, she’s there.

Click here to find out more information or to enroll.

Me too.

Go to Catholicvote.org (you don’t have to be Catholic), register–it’s super simple–and vote for a commercial on non-contraceptive family planning! Let’s show them we think it’s important, beautiful and life changing!

(Newly Updated 5/8/09)
ABC’s Nightline did a piece tonight on Christopher West and Theology of the Body tonight, and I tuned in to see how badly the media would mess it up.

View the video here.

But guess what? It was brilliant. Zero trace of anti-Catholicism, and several money moments for telling the Good News of Sex and Marriage, complete with married couples’ testimonies, the bulimia-contraception analogy, and the mutual climax quote from John Paul II (You’ve got to see the clip or read the books to know what I’m talking about).

A downside in trying to pack in so much in ten minutes is that you leave out all of the dimensions of the Theology of the Body, like the beauty of vocation, celibacy and consecrated life, its implications for art, liturgy and beyond. As I said recently to a friend, sometimes people get the idea (as it would be easy to) that TOB is “Theology of the Genitals,” when, in fact, it’s Theology of the Body, Soul and entire person.

Another critique I have, which is probably a critique that many have of Christopher West, is that if you didn’t know Christopher West, Theology of the Body, and the context, he might come off a little like a sex maniac. However, if you know how far he’s come in his personal and professional development, you get it. West is really good at what he does–communicating and getting one’s attention so that he can share Theology of the Body. This is a message people need to hear, and one that has affected the lives of so many already.

Did you see it? What did you think?

Things you can do:

• Read Theology of the Body for Beginners, or buy it for someone who’s not read it
• Pray for hearts and minds of those who saw this tonight to be opened
• Thank ABC (see link above) for doing a piece on TOB

Update: Read CNA’s Interview with West regarding the “sensationalism” of the interview content.
Update 2: CNA’s Interview with Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand, Mary Shivanandan, and Fr. Jose Granados.

Update 3: Facebook conversation on Natural Family Planning discussion board.

His Excellency Robert Carlson

The world won’t understand this, but I’ve just upgraded my opinion of Archbishop Robert Carlson, the newly appointed AB of St. Louis, Missouri. With this audio clip (fast-forward to 3:10), I’ve got from fan to uber fan to super duper fan.

I’m on a roll today on the link between good families and vocations–which seems like an obvious link, right?–and will hopefully write a more in-depth article on the connection between fruitful family life, NFP and vocations.

Congratulations, St. Louis! Keep on rockin’ in the free, total, faithful and fruitful world, Archbishop Carlson!

Painting by Neilson Carlin at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine

St. Gianna Molla, mother and physician, is called “the martyr of maternal love.” If you’re not familiar with St. Gianna’s life, read St. Gianna’s story here or here. Quick facts:

Born: 4 October 1922
Died: 28 April 1962
Canonized: 16 May 2004 by Pope John Paul II
Feast Day: April 28
Patron Saint of: mothers, physicians

Imagine the extraordinary occasion of attending the canonization to sainthood of your own spouse. Many people love and admire their husband or wife dearly, and many even have attained great virtue. Even of the holiest of laypeople, could you imagine attending a Mass declaring the heroic virtue and miraculous intercession of your deceased beloved surrounded by multitudes and lead by the Vicar of Christ?

On May 16, 2004 Pietro Molla, husband of Gianna Beretta Molla, did just that, with his three living children in attendance, including the youngest, Gianna Emmanuella, for whom her mother died.

St. Gianna is the first laywoman and doctor to be canonized, and is truly a saint for modern times. Pope John Paul II said in his homily on the day of her canonization,

Following the example of Christ, who “having loved his own… loved them to the end” (Jn 13: 1), this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the commitment she made on the day of her marriage. The extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life testifies that only those who have the courage to give of themselves totally to God and to others are able to fulfil themselves. Through the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, may our age rediscover the pure, chaste and fruitful beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine call! “

But before St. Gianna decided God was calling her to the vocation of Holy Matrimony, though, she discerned very carefully, and even considered a consecrated vocation. She meditated, spent time in silent prayer, and patiently waited for the Lord to reveal His will. We should all do the same thing, waiting for the Lord in His own time, never forcing his hand, and obeying with great swiftness and generosity once we do understand His will.

Helen Hull Hitchcock, director of Women for Faith & Family, explains very eloquently St. Gianna’s beautiful balance between her vocational life as wife and mother, and her professional life as physician,

“In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring (2004), the Church officially recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an ordinary life – as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother.  Though she had once considered entering a religious order, instead she practiced medicine (receiving her medical degree in 1949, and her specialty in pediatrics in 1952). She devoted herself to caring for her patients, and her selflessness and dedication as a physician endeared her to the people.  But it was not only her practice of medicine that influenced them. She regarded her profession as a mission through which she could aid and nurture both bodies and souls. The young doctor’s devotion to her Catholic faith was well known in her community, and especially her instruction of young Catholic girls in their faith.”

So today, give thanks for the life and death of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, and pray for the unity of families and the holiness and conversion of physicians, that they may serve unselfishly, choose life and stop prescribing contraception.

Ways to celebrate St. Gianna’s feast day (honestly, it’s tough because it’s also the feast day of two other great saints, St. Peter Chanel & St. Louis Mary de Montfort):

• Thank a mother for their heroic and ordinary sacrifices.
• Thank a medical professional that doesn’t prescribe contraception or perform/ cooperate in sterilizations
• Read a book on the life of St. Gianna–St. Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother & Doctor by Pietro Molla, Elio Guerriero, James G. Colbert (Ignatius Press)
• Pray for a physician or pharmacist you know who still prescribes contraception, and give them Patty Schneier’s “Prove It, God! CD” or the book, “Physicians Healed.”
• Make a donation to the Catholic Medical Association.
• Order St. Gianna Holy Cards, and include them in your Mother’s Day cards.
• Check out St. Gianna on Facebook, or see one of her Facebook Groups here.

Have you ever heard someone talking about NFP, doing their very best–bless their hearts–and you just want to cring because they say something like, “Did you know Pastor so-and-so is against contraception? [Yes, he's a Catholic pastor. What do you mean?] Well he’s against NFP [NFP is *not* contraception.] Same difference, right?” [NO. And further, why is a Catholic pastor against NFP? That's a whole separate blog entry.]

I sometimes give talks about natural methods of family planning, and about the ills and myths of contraception. I’ve learned a few things along the way–what to say, what not to say, nuances that are most effective, etc. Someone I know asked me to write down some tips for others who might find themselves talking about NFP or it’s archnemesis, contraception. So here are my thoughts.

DO:
· Refer to non-approved methods of family planning as “contraception”—anything, natural or synthetic, that is contra—against—conception, be it the Pill, condoms, herbal abortafacients, abortion, or even NFP used for a selfish or unjust purpose. For a more contemporary usage (and to avoid the baggage that comes with the acronym NFP), you may also refer to “NFP” as “natural methods of family planning.”

· Be sold on the truth, and express these teachings—particularly the Church’s teaching on contraception—with a de facto joy and boldness. This isn’t just a hard thing we’re trying to convince people of, it’s a beautiful freeing gift we’re presenting to them to discover. We should be proud of it in a gentle way.

· Talk about the dual use of NFP:  NFP can be used to achieve OR postpone a pregnancy (notice how postpone implies an openness to life, and gives a less negative connotation to pregnancy.) Be a little bold, and use achieve first. If we start to communicate positively about pregnancy—that fertility is a gift and pregnancy is a good and beautiful thing—it will catch on and change the mentality.

 DON’T:
· Use imprecise language: Don’t refer to non-approved methods of family planning as: artificial birth control, artificial contraception, chemical birth control, etc. (Why? Because when we use “artificial” or “chemical” people think artificiality is why contraception is considered immoral; when , in fact, that’s not the fundamental reason for the immorality of contraception; exiling procreation from the sexual act is.)

· Be intimidated by the statistics of contraceptive use. Though we are “outnumbered,” people can sense your apprehension. Yes, it’s an unpopular and for many a difficult subject, but people will receive it more readily from someone who’s joyfully confident.

· Use the phrase “Avoid a pregnancy.” While this is the phrase you may find in some Church literature, it has a negative connotation. Use the word “postpone.”

· Emphasize the contraceptive benefits of NFP:  We’re often so aware of the contraceptive mentality of people we work with and speak to, and are used to the rejection of NFP as a valid family planning option that we’re eager to get a foot in the door by saying, “Wait! NFP is just as effective as ______..” This gives people the idea that NFP is a contraception, when it is very different. We should let people know the effectiveness when used to postpone pregnancy, but it shouldn’t be the first thing we say.