CNA Staff, Jul 20, 2020 / 23:38 pm
Online resources and personal stories from Catholic couples feature prominently as key parts of this year's NFP Awareness Week, an annual celebration of the Church's teaching on marriage and sexuality promoted by the U.S. bishops' conference.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the broad term for a variety of natural methods Catholic married couples may use in order to track their fertility and plan and space children while following Church teaching on human sexuality, as explained in St. Pope Paul VI's encyclical, Humanae Vitae.
This year's theme for the annual celebration, chosen by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), is "Live the truth and beauty of God's plan for married love!" The week, which began July 19 and lasts through July 25, includes the anniversary of the promulgation of Humanae Vitae and ends the day before the feast day of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary who themselves struggled to conceive.
"God is love and He created men and women in His image," the U.S. bishops' conference tweeted on Monday of NFP Week. "Human sexuality is part of God's plan and carries within it the two-fold powers of love and life. It's woven into the fabric of each man and woman."