Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home Life Family

Marriage better with NFP

byCNS
16 October 2014 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA

NFP blessing: Alice and Jeff Heinzen pose for a photo as they arrive for a session of the Synod of Bishops. The couple are auditors at the synod. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
NFP blessing: Alice and Jeff Heinzen pose for a photo as they arrive for a session of the Synod of Bishops. The couple are auditors at the synod. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring
NFP blessing: Alice and Jeff Heinzen pose for a photo as they arrive for a session of the Synod of Bishops. The couple are auditors at the synod. Photo: CNS/Paul Haring

CATHOLIC couples that ignore church teaching on contraception “don’t know what they are missing,” said a US couple invited to address the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family.

Alice and Jeff Heinzen, family life leaders in the Diocese of La Crosse, Wisconsin, spoke at the synod on October 7, urging efforts to find new ways to share its teaching about the beauty of family life.

Although the couple has practiced natural family planning for 27 years and taught natural family planning – Alice is a member of the NFP advisory board for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops — they did not speak specifically about family planning in their presentation to the synod.

The couple said church teaching about married sexuality, openness to life and against the use of artificial contraception was clearly a place where new ways of presenting the message were needed.

The good news, they said, was that natural family planning was good for a marriage, good for one’s health and good for the environment.

“Natural family planning is really a skill set that allows you to maintain your vow of openness to life,” Alice said.

 “When you look at other things, like being faithful to one another, if you’re going to be faithful you better have the skill of conflict resolution so that you can work things out. If you’re going to stay permanently married forever, well then you better be able to forgive one another. That’s another skill set.”

Once it became “part of our lifestyle, then it was pretty amazing because it led to a mastery for myself of my own human sexuality,” Jeff said, “and for Alice it really ended up bringing a higher level of trust because I think that for so long women have been taught to be the gatekeepers and men to be the demanders. And it completely changed everything.”

NFP courses are attracting more and more people interested in the methods simply because they are natural, not for religious reasons, Alice said.

“However, after they start practicing and charting and discussing, they notice a shift in their relationship, they notice a deepening of their conversation,” she said.

Related Stories

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

When that happens, she said, instructors can point out: “This is God’s plan. When you allow him into this whole process how can you not expect more joy, how can you not expect things to be better between you?”

Alice said their friends and even their three children noticed how it affected their relationship, keeping it fresh and vibrant.

If a couple can speak openly about their fertility and talk about when or when not to have sex, Jeff said, “well, the cheque book looks pretty easy and the finances aren’t such a big deal.”

The church is teaching truth, Jeff said, but sometimes it does not “package” it to sell.

“It’s a consistent product; all we have to do is figure out how we are going to deliver this to the population, especially to our young adults today,” he said.

Commenting on the synod discussions, including differing views on how the church should respond to those who do not follow church teaching on marriage and family life, both of the Heinzens said they were encouraged by the attention the church was giving to the issues.

“This is a new age; this is a new way of addressing the crises that are identified” in the synod working document, Alice said.

“We’re discussing them, we’re wrestling with them – that is hope.”

Jeff said he was impressed that Pope Francis “has cleared his calendar to be in this room every day. Cleared his calendar. Not, ‘Well, I can be here on Monday and then I can make an appointment on Tuesday afternoon.’ No, he’s here all the time.”

Olivier and Xristilla Roussy, a French couple who are part of the Emmanuel Community and leaders of its Love and Truth ministry for couples, addressed the synod’s evening session on October 9 and were honest about their experience with artificial contraception and with natural family planning.

After their third child was born, Olivier said, Xristilla was exhausted; they thought that using the pill for a few months would help their marriage, “but it had the opposite effect.”

He said his wife was always “in a bad mood, desire was absent and her joy disappeared.”

In addition, he said, they both “understood we closed the door to the Lord in our conjugal life.”

Olivier told the synod that using natural family planning to space the birth of children is not always easy, especially because sexual desire increases during a woman’s fertile period, but talking to one another and exercising discipline teaches trust and tenderness.

“We have found these methods are reliable,” he said, “even though we must admit that when we did not contain our desire, an infant came nine months later.”

ShareTweet
Previous Post

New church a virtual reality

Next Post

A hand out or a hand up?

CNS

Related Posts

Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health
QLD

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict
News

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says
Faith

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Next Post

A hand out or a hand up?

The Community Leaders Awards

Time to honour inspiring Catholics

New sensory garden hailed a huge success

Popular News

  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 95 on a ‘very happy’ day

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Parishes unite for Logan deanery family festival this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health
QLD

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

by Joe Higgins
19 May 2022
0

FAITHFUL nationwide were getting out their rosary beads for a prayer event in honour of Australia’s patroness...

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022
Minority Catholic woman takes pride in Asia’s overlooked saints

Minority Catholic woman takes pride in Asia’s overlooked saints

18 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping