Follow Me Natural Family Planning Week is July 21-27 By Bishop Terry R. LaValley

July 2, 2025

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
In his letter proclaiming this Jubilee Year of Hope, Pope Francis wrote that looking to the future with hope entails having enthusiasm for life and a readiness to share it. Sadly, in many places in our world today there exists the loss of the desire to transmit life. Openness to life and responsible parenthood is the design that the Creator has implanted in the hearts and bodies of men and women, a mission that the Lord has entrusted to spouses and to their love. (Spes non confundit)

The desire to give birth to new daughters and sons is a sign of the fruitfulness of married love, ensuring a future for our society. The desire to have children is born of hope and it generates hope. Catholic Christians should be in the forefront in fostering a hope that is working for a future filled with the laughter of babies and children. As Pope Francis stated “…we need to recover the joy of living, since men and women, created in the image and likeness of God, cannot rest content with getting along one day at a time, settling for the here and now and seeking fulfillment in material realities alone. This leads to a narrow individualism and the loss of hope; it gives rise to a sadness that lodges in the heart. (SNC) In many ways, such sadness, uncertainty, even fear pervades our daily living.

It is good this Natural Family Planning Awareness Week, July 21-27, to remember that “Helping married couples to deepen conjugal love and achieve responsible parenthood is part of the Church’s pastoral care for Catholic spouses. This means instilling conviction and offering practical help to those who wish to live out their parenthood in a truly responsible way.” (Familiaris consortio, 35)

We know that God designed marriage as an “intimate partnership of life and love” (GS,48). In God’s design, marriage is a unique union of one man with one woman for the whole of life. Making decisions about when and how many children to have in marriage is a sacred responsibility that God has entrusted to husband and wife.

Through their sexualintimacy, spouses are inviting God to perform His creative act of bringing a new human soul into existence. God entrusts that soul to the parent to guide and educate and ultimately to help get them to heaven. Church teaching on contraception is not just doctrine that states what not to do.

The Church supportsmethods of Natural Family Planning (NFP) because they respect God’s design for married love. NFP is an umbrella term for certain methods used to achieve and avoid conception. It reflects the dignity of the human person within the context of marriage and family life, promotes openness to life and recognizes the value of the child. It’s a teaching that explains how extraordinarily important is the act of having children. (Dr. J. Smith)

Contraception causes us tothink of sexual intercourse as a casual and, to some extent, as an insignificant act rather than an act that can change the universe. Just think about it, someone who did not exist before comes into existence and will remain in existence forever. What a gift! What a responsibility!

We are grateful to Suzanne and Angelo Pietropaoli, Diocesan Directors of our NFP Office. Through their ministry as directors and educators, we offer assistance to families throughout our diocese. Should you like more information about Natural Family Planning, please contact our office. These days we all could use a good dose of enthusiasm for life. Let’s share it and pray that God give strength to those who are living the sacrament of marriage with courage. Be a beacon of hope: “Pursue a lasting love…MARRIAGE. Create hope for the future.”

Faithfully yours in Christ,
Most Reverend Terry R. LaValley
Bishop of Ogdensburg