Is Natural Family Planning A Heresy?

[Apotheoun]

Fr. Brian W. Harrison has written an excellent article on natural family planning. To read the article, click on the link below:

[url="http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt103.html"]Is Natural Family Planning a Heresy?[/url]

[pionono]

A heresy? Its practice can certainly be sinful, if used for the wrong reasons. But the thing in itself does not deny any Catholic teaching. I really really like Fr, Harrison.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='pionono' date='Jul 12 2004, 08:57 PM'] A heresy?  Its practice can certainly be sinful, if used for the wrong reasons.  But the thing in itself does not deny any Catholic teaching.  I really really like Fr, Harrison. [/quote]
The title of this thread is not an assertion; instead, it is simply the title of Fr. Harrison's article. I also like Fr. Harrison, because his articles are always very informative.

Edited July 13, 2004 by Apotheoun

[Hananiah]

And he writes for [i]The Remnant[/i].

Edited July 13, 2004 by Hananiah

[jmjtina]

:pc: print.

[pionono]

F. Harrison is probably the most balanced (and brilliant) theologian in the English speaking world today, though Dr. Wiliam Marshner comes in a close second

[Oik]

When I saw this post I was like !!!WHAT!!!
Then I read the article.

[St. Catherine]

[quote]When I saw this post I was like !!!WHAT!!![/quote]


I did the same thing.

[mamalove]

[quote]This 'traditionalist' criticism of NFP exists in various degrees. And I should begin by acknowledging that, in its milder forms – that is to say, when it is directed more against some modern pastoral policies and practices rather than at the Church's authentic doctrine about NFP as such – the criticism seems to me reasonable and just. From what I have seen and read in my years as a priest, I agree with such critics that, among those promoting NFP, there is sometimes a one-sidedness or lack of balance. Married or engaged couples are often taught the legitimacy and the technique of the ovulation or sympto-thermal methods of NFP, but with little or no mention of that other part of the Church's teaching which insists that couples need "just reasons" (Humanae Vitae, 16; Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], #2368) for using NFP if they wish to be free from blame before God. (Indeed, quite frankly, I think we really need now from the Magisterium some less vague and more specific guidelines as to what actually constitutes a "just reason".) Very often, such couples hear nothing at all of the fact that "Sacred Scripture and the Church's teaching see in large families a sign of God's blessing and the parents'generosity" (CCC no. 2373). Still less frequently are they informed that, according to the Magisterium, merely temporal or worldly considerations are in themselves inadequate criteria for deciding when NFP can be justified: "Let all be convinced that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny" (Vatican Council II, Gaudium et Spes, no. 51, cited in CCC no. 2371). Taking into account the whole spectrum of biblical and Church teaching in this area, I personally think that we need to bring back the word "grave" into the discourse about family planning. That is, we should be teaching that the temporal or worldly problems to be anticipated by another pregnancy and birth (mainly of health or poverty) need to be really grave in character before a married couple is entitled to conclude that they have a "just reason" for them to use NFP. (I said "bring back" above, because, as I shall show in this article, that key adjective, "grave", has in fact been used by the Magisterium in this context, in certain decisions that have been generally forgotten, but by no means repudiated.)[/quote]


We were talking about this a while back in the NFP forum. This paragraph really hits the nail on the head.

[Guest JeffCR07]

thats such a good article

[Norseman82]

[quote](Indeed, quite frankly, I think we really need now from the Magisterium some less vague and more specific guidelines as to what actually constitutes a "just reason".) [/quote]

I have never been able to get a straight answer to this question either. The closest I have gotten is a remark from someone that he used NFP to plan the birth of their child so that it would not occur while he was out of the country on a pilgrimage.

[phatcatholic]

[quote name='Apotheoun' date='Jul 12 2004, 08:42 PM'] Fr. Brian W. Harrison has written an excellent article on natural family planning. To read the article, click on the link below:

[url="http://www.rtforum.org/lt/lt103.html"]Is Natural Family Planning a Heresy?[/url] [/quote]
i added your article to the "Morality and Ethics: Part One" entry

thanks bro

oh, and btw, Father William G. Most is my personal favorite (since we're talking about priests who defend the faith)