Nfp And Contraceptive Mentality

[mommas_boy]

My wife and I were recently married on July 16, the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. I am currently without a well-paying job (working part-time retail), and we have significant debt. Emily and I are currently using NFP to postpone pregnancy.

Today, I went to spiritual direction, my first time since getting married. During direction, my director told me that while our reasons for wanting to postpone pregnancy are "just", we need to be mindful of using NFP with a "contraceptive mentality".

Is there such a thing?

It doesn't seem to stand up to Catholic morality. By that logic, if NFP is immoral without "just cause", then it ought to be immoral even with just cause, because intention does not absolve wrongdoing, and because one cannot perform a bad action in order to have a good outcome. So, NFP must either be good or bad on it's own right, regardless of circumstance.

I have done some research, and have only been able to find people's opinions. I don't want opinions; I want Church teaching, and so am posting my question here, rather than in the NFP forum, to make sure of that. Thank you in advance for your help.

[cappie]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Last time I posted some of the church's teachings I was accused of not speaking English, but here goes......[/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Just for starters there are 2 documents which address your question amongst others one is the [i]VADEMECUM FOR CONFESSORS CONCERNING SOME ASPECTS OF THE MORALITY OF CONJUGAL LIFE[/i][/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]#6. However, profoundly different from any contraceptive practice is the behaviour of married couples, who, always remaining fundamentally open to the gift of life, live their intimacy only in the unfruitful periods, when they are led to this course by serious motives of responsible parenthood. This is true both from the anthropological and moral points of view, because it is rooted in a different conception of the person and of sexuality. [/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The witness of couples who for years have lived in harmony with the plan of the Creator, and who, for proportionately serious reasons, licitly use the methods rightly called "natural," confirms that it is possible for spouses to live the demands of chastity and of married life with common accord and full self-giving.[/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The second is from [i]Humanae Vitae[/i],[/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"If, then, there are serious motives to space out births, which derive from the physical or psychological conditions of husband and wife, or from external conditions, the Church teaches that it is then licit to take into account the natural rhythms immanent in the generative functions, for the use of marriage in the infecund periods only, and in this way to regulate birth without offending the moral principles which have been recalled earlier.[/font][/size]

[size=3][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]"The Church is coherent with herself when she considers recourse to the infecund periods to be licit, while at the same time condemning, as being always illicit, the use of means directly contrary to fecundation, even if such use is inspired by reasons which may appear honest and serious. In reality, there are essential differences between the two cases; in the former, the married couple make legitimate use of a natural disposition; in the latter, they impede the development of natural processes. It is true that, in the one and the other case, the married couple are concordant in the positive will of avoiding children for plausible reasons, seeking the certainty that offspring will not arrive; but it is also true that only in the former case are they able to renounce the use of marriage in the fecund periods when, for just motives, procreation is not desirable, while making use of it during infecund periods to manifest their affection and to safeguard their mutual fidelity. By so doing, they give proof of a truly and integrally honest love" (Paul VI, Enc. [i]Humanae Vitae[/i], July 25, 1968, n. 16).[/font][/size]

Edited August 12, 2011 by cappie