Natural Family Planning: Nature's Way - God's Way


25. Teaching NFP in the Archdiocese of Krakow

Since 1969 1 have been working in the Family Pastoral Center, in a parish of Krakow, operating a Family Advisory Service by giving lectures to engaged couples. I also do counseling services for young married couples.

Those who come to the Center have either been sent by their confessors or come on their own initiative. They represent members of every age-level and social class.

The problems most frequently met are conjugal conflicts, birth regulation, unmarried mothers, and parent-child conflicts. A frequent question is: "Why doesn't the Catholic Church approve artificial birth control or contraception?"

Each engaged couple, after completing the course, comes to the Advisory Center to talk things over privately. I also encourage the young ladies, even before their marriage, to practice observing their monthly physiological changes in order the better to appreciate their cyclic fertility.

The pre-marriage conferences have a strong religious tone. This is particularly important in view of the inadequate religious instruction young people have. Therefore, I consider it very important that there be frequent and significant contacts between parish priests and the individuals working in the Advisory Center.

Medical doctors who are getting ready for their own marriages and are obliged to attend lectures at the Center feel a bit downgraded, but mainly at the start. They come confident of their medical knowledge; actually they know little about the regulation of births. Nurses are more familiar in this area. I begin the meeting by telling them how happy I am to see the doctors and nurses at the Center because their expertise and prestige adds greatly to the value of the Center's work.

Sexual intercourse gives rise to some problems in any marriage. However, for persons of deep faith, full love, and good will, there is no doubt that the only way is to adjust themselves to the woman's biological rhythm and to recognize that periodic abstinence is a necessity in every marriage, without making too much fuss about the situation.

However many persons are either badly informed or find periodic abstinence too difficult. They think of it as a "home-remedy" for avoiding pregnancy, which cannot really compare in effectiveness with the advertised contraceptives.

The decision belongs to the married couple. A problem arises when the woman alone looks for this ethical way of birth regulation; frequently women have difficulties in persuading their husbands. It is much easier when they work together on this. Frequently the husband listens to the lectures better than his wife, and is more interested than she in the logical arguments and the scientific information.

Experience acquired in my work allows me to draw the following conclusions:


by Eve C.

Eve C. is aged 55, university graduate, professional architect in Krakow. Married in 1950.


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