When Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the traditional Christian teaching against unnatural forms of birth control in 1968 through the encyclical Humanae Vitae, he recommended that married couples help other married couples with Natural Family Planning. In response, John and Sheila Kippley founded the Couple to Couple League in 1971 for three purposes: 1. To meet the need for a nationwide, independent, and organized way of delivering NFP services; 2. To provide instruction in NFP that includes moral and religious values along with physiological and scientifically accurate information; 3. To train volunteer married couples to be proficient counselors and teachers in a 99% effective method of NFP, and at no cost to those who generously undertake this training. With the assistance of Konald A. Prem, M.D., then a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, a plan was developed to meet those needs. The CCL concept has proven successful, not only in the U.S., but in countries throughout the world. Each year sees new areas opening up to being served by CCL.
In summary, the message of this encyclical is that God knew what he was doing when he created man and woman, their marital and sexual relationship, and the delights and the demands of true love. In God's plan, sexual intercourse is exclusively a marriage act, and within marriage it must be a true marriage act, a symbolic renewal of their marriage covenant. Contraceptive behaviors contradict God's plan. When married couples live out the plan of God, they and their families and the entire culture will benefit. This is the divine truth about human love, and the Church must keep on proclaiming it. When they have sufficient need, couples can practice natural family planning. The Church must do what it can to help couples develop the virtues necessary to live the demands of love and to provide whatever practical help it can through its bishops and priests, scientists and doctors, and couples helping other couples.
Date posted: 2008-02-05