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Responsible Parenthood in a Birth Control Culture, Part Two August 14th, 2008 by Fr. James Farfaglia As I explained in part one, when the sacrament of holy matrimony is consummated, the husband and wife need to be open to the possibility of having a child.  I also mentioned that because we live in a culture that is so birth control oriented, even some couples using Natural Family Planning use it with a contraceptive mentality, for inappropriate reasons. Now I want to discuss those reasons.Remember that one of the three purposes of marriage is the procreation of children.  To use Natural...

Austin, Aug 13, 2008 / 09:15 pm (CNA).- Citing a desire to let their faith in God guide their sex lives and to trust Him in every aspect of their existence, some Protestants have become practitioners of Natural Family Planning (NFP). Eschewing contraceptives, some are now joining Catholics in fertility classes and returning to traditional Christian teaching.The Austin American-Statesman reports that the number of NFP practitioners who are Protestants is difficult to quantify. However, Rev. Amy Laura Hall, a Methodist minister and associate professor at Duke Divinity School, says there appears to be growing interest. She said that, as...

Philippine Population Control Groups Launch Suit Against Pro-Life Manila Former Mayor By Hilary White MANILA, Philippines, October 2, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Lito Atienza, the former mayor of the Philippine capital Manila, who has earned the wrath of abortionists and population control groups for his opposition to the killer abortion drug RU-486, is facing a lawsuit by those same groups. According to Elizabeth Pangalangan, executive director of the Reproductive Health, Rights and Ethics Center at the University of the Philippines, the suit aims to "hold [Atienza] liable for acts which caused injury to women." Atienza, who is now the Environment Secretary...

A group of lay Catholics are promoting natural family planning methods among the Philippine Muslim community to control the rising population without going against the beliefs held by the two religions. The group began its campaign in Maguindanao, southern Mindanao province, where the percentage of Muslims reaches 90 percent.     From there, the group hopes to carry its work to the rest of the country to tackle the problem of birth control without relying on artificial methods, AsiaNews reported Thursday.     The well known and much appreciated method, known as the "Billings ovulation method," is based on analysis of the female ovulation...

New Birth Control Pill Threatens to Once Again Dupe Women into Abusing Their Bodies, but Fertility Expert Shows it Doesn’t Have to be This WayContact: Christine Schicker, 404-610-8871, cschicker@maximusmg.com, Lisa Wheeler, 678-990-9032, lwheeler@maximusmg.comWASHINGTON, July 13 /Christian Newswire/ -- "Women no longer need to be slaves to the pharmaceutical industry," said Mercedes Arzú Wilson, president of Family of the Americas Foundation and author of the newly released book, Love & Fertility. Wilson's new book examines and illustrates a natural method of family planning in an easy to understand format. This scientifically and medically proven, revolutionary method should not be confused with the...

In reference to your May 23, 2007 article [1] regarding the new contraceptive pill "Lybrel," we continue to be amazed at the never-ending enslaving of women by making them choose a variety of birth control pills which are variations of the same deadly steroid chemicals!   As that well-known pamphlet from the Breast Cancer Institute states: "If it is not okay for him [athletes] to take steroids, why is it okay for her," referring to women 18-49?    Why can't the media and the medical profession be more responsible in warning women that birth control pills, the patches, or injections such...

HEIDELBERG, Germany, February 21, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A new study by German researchers shows that a method of natural family planning is statistically as effective as the contraceptive pill in delaying pregnancy. Researchers from the University of Heidelberg studied the statistical effectiveness of the symptothermal method (STM) to avoid achieving pregnancy. Unlike contraceptives that either suppress a woman's natural fertility cycle or act as a barrier to conception, STM helps a woman to understand the natural signs of her fertility in order to achieve or temporarily delay pregnancy. The study involving 900 women was published in the journal, Human Reproduction,...

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky, November 3, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Young Christian couples are re-thinking contraceptive use and biblical teaching on human sexuality, in response to a growing awareness of the social damage caused by the sexual revolution, a foremost leader in the U.S evangelical community told Christianity Today last month.Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., is a theologian and ordained minister, serving as president of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, the leading educational institution of the Southern Baptist Convention. He said Christian evangelicals are questioning the effects  widespread reliance on birth control has had on society.“In the first place, this generation has now...

I suppose it was predictable: as the population of the United States gets ready to cruise past the 300,000,000 mark, the fourth estate is already rolling out its big guns for a left flank manuvuer against Catholic teaching and conservatism in general. And the call to arms is "The US is eating up the world!" Years ago, when there were still moms and pops taking some liberal ideas seriously around the kitchen table, blowing the over-population bugle could rally a fair number of troops, but not anymore. France is offering huge -- and I mean really HUGE -- personal tax...

If Jesus were the Bishop of Amarillo, what would He do? A pastoral letter by Bishop John W. Yanta July 16, 2006 - Feast Day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, if Jesus were the Bishop of Amarillo, how would he run the Diocese of Amarillo? What would Jesus try to teach us? Would Jesus be evangelizing the people of God? How? Doing what? Saying what? Would Jesus be trying every means possible to call us to holiness? Would Jesus not only invite us to become his disciples but provide all the means of...

Seattle, Jun. 12, 2006 (CNA) - A relatively new method of regulating fertility is catching on around the world.  CycleBeads are 95 percent effective and, in themselves, do not conflict with Catholic teachings related to reproduction and fertility. The CycleBeads, which consist of 32 beads in three colors, is a fertility awareness-based method that helps plan or prevent pregnancy naturally. Victoria Jennings, an anthropologist and director of Georgetown's Institute for Reproductive Health, believes women are looking for non-hormonal, non-invasive ways to control their fertility. She and other researchers at Georgetown University conducted a scientific trial of the beads they call...

A study released last week by the British Medical Journal's subsidiary, the Journal of Medical Ethics, seemed more designed for attacking the Catholic Church than for scientific rigour.  If that was the goal of L. Bovens' "The rhythm method and embryonic death", then the mainstream media fell for the ploy head-over-heels.  "How Vatican roulette kills embryos," screamed Australia's Sydney Morning Herald; "Rhythm method linked to massive embryonic death," was the headline of India's New Kerala, and Canada's Vancouver Sun styled it "'Rhythm' method a killer of embryos."Physicians and medical ethicists, however, have responded to the journal noting that the study...

PRINCETON, New Jersey, FEB. 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Marriage's role as a public institution is increasingly under attack. In the midst of pressures for legalization of same-sex marriage, formal recognition of de facto couples, and the continuing problem of divorce, the traditional view of marriage is no longer clear to many people. But a volume of essays just-published collects an impressive array of evidence by leading scholars defending marriage and arguing that it serves the common good. "The Meaning of Marriage: Family, State, Market, and Morals" (Spence Publishing) is edited by Robert P. George and Jean Bethke Elshtain, professors at Princeton...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT: The massive social and psychological disorder we see all around us is not the making of the "gay community." Our current problems — including even the gay-rights" movement itself — arose as a result of disorders that first became prevalent among heterosexuals. If we want to take the mote out of our "gay" brothers' eyes maybe we should first remove the beam from our own. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is impossible to look at the changes in our culture over the last few decades without realizing the extent of the changes wrought by the new sexual mores. The thesis of...

Say goodbye to diaries — those small books with breakable locks that little brothers could easily get their hands on. Today’s women have computer programs that help them track their most cherished secrets. Women practicing Natural Family Planning (NFP) can throw away their paper charts and store that information in their palm pilot. And there is no worry about this sensitive information falling into the wrong hands — with the click of a button, the intimate details of a woman’s life can be protected by a password. Woman Calendar, a program by BEIKS LLC, is a simple program that any...

PHOENIX, January 10 (CNA) - Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix is now the third U.S. bishop to require a full course of natural family planning for couples who want to marry in a Catholic church. The other dioceses are Denver and Fargo. Most other dioceses only require an introduction to the method. In a series of articles, Bishop Olmsted said artificial birth control is a grave wrong that is at the root of many of the problems afflicting American society, reported the Arizona Republic. He said: "marriage itself is gravely harmed" when a couple uses birth control, and that marital...

December 21, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Women are suing the makers of Depo-Provera birth control, saying it has caused them severe bone loss leading to osteoporosis.A $700-million class-action lawsuit has been filed against the drug company Pfizer, an international pharmaceutical conglomerate that also produces the prescription drugs Viagra, Zoloft and Celebrex. Pfizer has come under fire in the past for alleged lethal side effects stemming from the use of the anti-depressant Zoloft, and the company currently faces a number of lawsuits in the U.S. over Celebrex, which is alleged to cause heart attacks in users.The drug Depo-Provera acts as an abortifacient....

The Delightful Secrets of Sex Juli Loesch Wiley on Fertility & Contraception With all the incessant media drooling over the sexual options smorgasbord, with the Gay Summer of 2003 still flickering blue on our TV screens, and with even the Girl Scouts and the YWCA endorsing “safe-sex” training for young girls, people plugged into the mass culture have heard few discordant notes about the sexual revolution—and some have heard, perhaps, only one. Namely, that “the pope” is against it. To whom is sometimes added “the Christian right.” And, especially maddening to the Socially Responsible, “the pope” is even for some...

by Danielle Bean Other Articles by Danielle Bean Does Your Doctor Defend Life? 06/27/05 Patients at most OB-GYN offices are bombarded with contraceptive propaganda, from the posters on the walls to advertisements on prescription pads and coffee mugs. Indeed, most physicians have little to offer couples who do not use artificial birth control. In This Article...The Magic Pill?Called to ServeWhere to Find Them The Magic Pill? There are, however, pro-family doctors who promote natural, moral methods of family planning and refuse to prescribe contraception or perform medical procedures that oppose Catholic teaching regarding the sanctity of human life. Their attitudes toward...

During the last three decades, the issue of overpopulation - or perceived overpopulation - has been discussed in various capacities. The primary instigators of these discussions have been the radical environmentalists, the radical animal rights activists, and certain wealthy elites in our Western society. All of these groups more or less assert that human beings are destroying the planet. There are too many of us, they say. Hence, we must utilize “family planning” (read: abortion, contraception, sterilization), even in a coercive manner, to limit the number of people born into the world. As a result of this elitist, anti-life mentality,...

Contraception: Newest effort to defeat pro-lifers Posted: March 2, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern By Jill Stanek © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Abortion Federation and pro-abortion politicians all make money directly or indirectly from abortion, and that is why they push it. But abortion comprises only one-third of their financial portfolio. They make another third by selling contraceptives, pregnancy tests and sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment. The final third comes from the government, which pays them to promote the illicit sexual behavior via "sexual education" that generates business for the aforementioned two-thirds of...

Making Babies: A Very Different Look at Natural Family Planning By H. W. Crocker III Natural family planning (NFP) needs a slogan, because as a “product”—if I might adopt business-speak—it’s not selling too well. According to some surveys, about 90 percent of professed Catholics reject the Church’s teaching on birth control. Even among priests, fewer than one in three considers artificial contraception to be “always” sinful. So let me propose a new rallying cry: “Use NFP: It Doesn’t Work!” You think I jest. The case for NFP should, by rights, be the case for more babies. To have them is...

The Facts of Life & Marriage Social Science & the Vindication of Christian Moral Teachingby W. Bradford Wilcox In 1968, Pope Paul VI released Humanae Vitae, an encyclical affirming the Christian tradition’s ancient and constant moral teaching that contraception is wrong. Sadly, Humanae Vitae came as a shock to many Christians inside and outside the Catholic Church, who thought that the church was ready to accommodate herself to the modern view of marriage as primarily a relational, not procreative, institution. Indeed, in the wake of Humanae Vitae, the Catholic Church largely lost her ability to successfully convince the American laity,...

NEW YORK, January 13, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The United Nations has launched a series of cartoons containing condoms as the main characters. “The Three Amigos” condom characters promote the so-called safe-sex message that condoms prevent HIV/AIDS. The UN describes the campaign as the "start of the world's largest integrated behaviour modification program," according to a WorldNetDaily report. The feature presents the characters, Shaft, Stretch and Dick, in a variety of settings. Canadian producer-director Firdaus Kharas said, “We're using humor to stop the spread of AIDS.” The television advertisement is already playing in the Netherlands, South Africa, and Canada, and has...

LIFE ISSUES FORUM July 16, 2004 For Immediate Release "A Way of Life, A Way of Love" by Theresa Notare, MA On July 25 the dioceses will begin a week-long campaign to help Catholics understand the Church's teachings on birth control. The campaign-Natural Family Planning Awareness Week-has as its theme "A Way of Life, A Way of Love." Why pick July as a time to do this? Two reasons: the anniversary of the important encyclical on birth control, Humanae vitae, falls on July 28th, and summer is typically a time when people slow down. It's a good time for reflection....

The Orgasmatron Finally Shows Up: High-Tech Rhythm by Sheelah Kolhatkar and Anna Schneider-Mayerson Like something out of Woody Allen’s Sleeper, a high-tech yet oddly retro new contraceptive device has alighted onto bedside tables across the New York City area. Called Lady-Comp, this computerized update of the long-mistrusted rhythm method promises to emancipate women from the bloated, fluttering stomachs and diluted sex drives that have always accompanied birth-control pills. "I love using it," said Monica, a 37-year-old early adopter who works in education at a Manhattan cultural institution and didn’t want her last name used. "It seems like this Japanese space...

IS NATURAL FAMILY PLANNING A 'HERESY'? by Brian W. Harrison When we hear the Church's teaching on the transmission of human life coming under attack, the attackers are usually those who want to justify contraceptive practices. They denounce especially the alleged "rigorism" or "obscurantism" of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, who have continued to insist, like all their predecessors in the See of Peter, that it is always gravely sinful for spouses to manipulate, pervert or interfere with the conjugal act in such a way as to impede the possibility of procreation. However, in recent times there has...

  No sooner than I get all gushy over the Old Oligarch than he posts something with which I must mildly take issue: Natural Woman -- so typical of many people we've known who have adopted NFP, through twists and turns and sometimes despite their pastors and DRE.Now, I say the rest of this with the following qualifiers: (1) Believe it or not, I really try to be a faithful Catholic. Oh, Lord knows I mess up sometimes. I've never said otherwise (except to irritate my wife, but that's different). (2) My wife and I practice natural family planning, because,...

CatholicCitizens.org censors Bridgitte O'Donnell for critiquing sex-therapist Gregory PopcakPreliminary note from Robert Sungenis: As of November 13, CatholicCitizens.org decided to engage in unwarranted censorship by arbitrarily removing one of its posted articles due to protests from the author the article critiqued. The article was originally written by Bridgette O’Donnell for the Catholic Family News in August 2003 and borrowed by CatholicCitizens.org. The article was Ms. O’Donnell’s critique of author and speaker Gregory Popcak (pronounced: Popchak) against his “perverse psychology and profane theology.” Apparently, Mr. Popcak contacted CatholicCitizens.org in “several communications” to complain about Ms. O’Donnell’s article, which eventually led...

USAID Undercuts U.S. Global HIV/AIDS Initiative   This May, President Bush signed into law the Global HIV/AIDS bill (HR 1298). Over the course of the next few years, $15 billion will be spent on new programs designed to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to provide life-extending care to millions infected with the disease. The law mandates that 55% of the overall funding will go for basic medicaltreatment. Even more importantly, 33% of the overall prevention funding must go to abstinence programs. No money would go to groups that advocate the legalization of prostitution. Oversight of the U.N. Global Fund...

HOME | ABOUT US | PRESS | EVENTS | PEOPLE | ISSUES | NEWSLETTER | CONTACT US | SEARCH Dumbing-Down the Pro-life Movement 9/1/2003 4:05:00 PM By Dr. Brian Kopp - Catholic Family Association of America, www.cathfam.org Pope Paul VI warned that the contraceptive mentality was counter to Christian morality, and would open the floodgates of divorce, abortion, euthanasia, and moral decine. He was right, but some pro-lifers still don't get it. In this post-Christian era of American society, where conservative politics and the multitude of Christian sects blur in a desperate attempt to build more effective coalitions, many...

The pill, the pope and the people: Thirty-five years later, the message of Pope Paul VI makes more sense than ever Thirty-five years ago this week, the Catholic Church warned that widespread acceptance of artificial contraception would have profound and negative consequences for the entire world. "Far from being the instrument of liberation for women, the pill enslaved women and brainwashed an entire generation into thinking that sex is simply a recreational activity devoid of any consequences and responsibility," said Judie Brown, president of American Life League . When Pope Paul VI released the Catholic Church's official stance on artificial...

I heard that Planned Parenthood was giving carcinogen-containing birth control pills to 12 year old girls without their parents' knowledge. Does anyone have any information regarding this and/or other atrocities by Planned Parenthood? Thanks a lot!

More (and Younger) Doctors Support Natural Family Planning National Catholic Register May18-24, 2003by TIM DRAKE Register CorrespondentCOLUMBUS, Ohio - Nancy Foley knows the value of a good natural family planning-only physician. Her physician, Dr. James Patterson, might very well have saved her life. Foley (not her real name) had charted her signs of fertility for nearly 12 years, but the signs she was experiencing seemed anything but typical. Concerned, she approached her natural family planning-only physician with her symptoms. Patterson’s (not his real name) knowledge, coupled with his patient’s, led to further tests and a final diagnosis of a precancerous...

LifeSite Daily News Wednesday October 2, 2002 LOW BIRTH RATE PUTS CANADA ON ROAD TO PERDITION TORONTO, October 2, 2002 (LSN.ca) - A prominent economics reporter with the Globe and Mail is one of the few Canadian opinion-makers to have said anything at all about the failure of Canadians to have children, historically a key sign of a doomed culture. "Canadian couples are not having enough kids even to replace themselves -- and have not for more than three decades now." "So long as we Canadians don't replace ourselves, we put ourselves on a path that's almost impossible to alter,"...