What Counts as Just Cause for Using NFP?

How grave do your reasons need to be to use NFP to avoid pregancy? 

The precise language the Church uses in Humanae Vitae discussing the kinds of reasons legitimating using NFP actually refers to "just reasons," "serious reasons," or "well-grounded reasons." The phrase "grave reason" is a mistranslation which gives the misleading impression that you have to be practically on death's doorstep or so broke you're eating dirt in order to use NFP to avoid. 

In this episode, Sarah looks at the categories of reasons Humanae vitae mentions, and offers some specific examples. 

She also recommends a way to pray together as husband and wife to get on the same page about your intention to avoid or try to achieve pregnancy.

Resources mentioned in the show:

Humanae vitae

Everyday in Love

"How to Talk about the Use and Abuse of Natural Family Planning and the Importance of Accuracy in Translation and Description," academic article by Kevin E. Miller in the Linacre Quarterly

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Free Enhancing Marital Intimacy Guide for Catholic Women: 9 Skills for Body, Mind, and Spirit (for married and engaged women)

Do you want to know what is allowed for Catholics in the bedroom? The "What's Allowed List" answers 20+ questions about what is licit and illicit. ($10)

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Transcript

0:50

What counts as serious reason or just reason for a married couple to use natural family planning to avoid pregnancy? That's the question I'm going to look at in this episode because there is a lot of concern around this and also some misconceptions. So I wanna clear up the misconceptions and help sketch out, um, you know, some examples of reasons for using NFP based in the church's magisterial document. Humane Vita. So, humane Vita says that for just, or serious or well-grounded reasons, a couple can use periodic continents studying the. The periods of fertility and infertility in the wife's menstrual cycle and avoid having sex during the fertile periods in her cycle in order to avoid pregnancy if they have serious or just, or well-grounded reasons for doing so. Now, sometimes that had been translated in the past as grave reason and. The Latin is yuta. It's, it's just, just reason. So I see in paragraph 10, human Vita says that married couple. Uh, needs to control, you know, exercise responsible parenthood by controlling their innate drives and emotions. It says, with regards to man's innate drives and emotions, responsible parenthood means that a man's reason and will must exert control over them. This is basically regulating our desire, our sexual desire, in accordance with our reason and using our will we can do that to avoid having sex when the wife is fertile, if we're using natural family planning to avoid pregnancy. And here is what Pope St. Pope Paul six wrote in Hi Vita, about the kinds of reasons that count as. Just reasons. He writes in paragraph 10 here, quote, with regard to physical, economic, psychological, and social conditions, responsible parenthood is exercised by those who prudently and generously decide to have more children and by those who for serious reasons. And with due respect to moral principles, print moral precepts decide not to have additional children for either a certain or an indefinite period of time. And then this is elaborated again further in paragraph 16, which I will quote here. Here in the beginning of this paragraph, the church is talking about how we can use our human intelligence to govern our use of sex and marriage. That we have the right and responsibility to control those forces of irrational nature which come within its ambit and direct them towards ends, beneficial to man. We are not animals just driven by our instincts in the sexual sphere. We can decide even if we have desire. It. We can decide whether we're going to act on that or whether we're going to redirect or, you know, just decide not to act on that desire for love making in marriage. And the church praises that and says, you're like, this is part of being human, is using your will and so then in discussing further on, in paragraph 16. The church praises the application of human intelligence to an activity in which a rational creature, such as man is so closely associated with his creator, the church. He's talking about sex there because this is the means by which God works for procreation. And then to continue the quote, but she affirms that this must be done within the limits of the order of reality. Established by God. And then here's the list of reasons. So I'm quoting here from paragraph 16 in human Vita. If therefore, there are well-grounded reasons for spacing, births arising from the psych, physical, or psychological condition of husband or wife. Or from external circumstances. The church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles imminent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles, which we have just explained so. So I'm finished quoting now, so I just wanna point out, this is quite a broad range of reasons. It's not just. If you get pregnant, you're gonna die, or we are so broke, we have to eat dirt for food. No, it's a,, pretty broad here. The couple needs to discern together as husband and wife and in prayer with God, what is God's will for our family right now? Is now a good time to invite new life? Is it God's will for us to be generous and. Invite a new baby into our family, or do we have some well-grounded reasons for spacing or avoiding birth right now due to our physical or psychological conditions, which paragraph 16 pointed to, or again earlier in paragraph 10, economic or social conditions that might be at work here. So this can include these conditions. Which constitute well-grounded reasons. Of course, they can include the health of the mother. Maybe she's had multiple C-sections and another pregnancy would be a big risk. Or there's other reasons why it would be a high risk pregnancy for her, or you know, dangerous for her to get pregnant again. That is obviously a good reason to use NFP to avoid, but it can also be not just physical health. It can be. Your psychological health. It's written right there in human vita, and this can include stress and overwhelm. So if you're just maxed out with the number of kids that you have right now, it's okay to take a break and wait until those kids grow a little bit more and wait until you're feeling more like, okay, yes, I've got my head outta the water. I'm not just, uh, just drowning,, in stress. You can really PR use your prudence to see where you are Now. We don't wanna stay stuck in this habit of being overwhelmed. There's a whole art to getting out of survival mode and not just treading in it, just being in a survival mode, treadmill. But still, the point is it is totally fine if you're just exhausted. If you're just tired and feeling maxed out and overwhelmed and anxious, that is totally a good reason for using NFP to avoid. Same thing obviously for being depressed. Also financial reasons. The church here points to economic factors, economic conditions, right? So if you're worried about your finances or your job security, that is a great time to use your reason and your intelligence and use the virtue of prudence and look around and say, okay,, these are the factors affecting our life right now. We don't have economic stability for our household right now. So let's avoid, conceiving through using NFP again here. You want to do your best to try to get out of that and so that, you know, the goal here is to be generous if we can, but it's also not a numbers game. Like you don't have to have a certain number of kids to show that you're a good Catholic. That is, that's not the point here. So I hope that is helpful. I think that in some Catholic circles, there's a lot of pressure to not use NFP unless there's just like very extreme, very intense factors. I've even heard, Catholic wives share with me, oh, our priest gave us a dispensation and gave us permission to use NFP. I need to let you know the church already gives you permission to use NFP. It's right there in Human Vita. You don't need any special dispensation or special personal permission from your pastor. It's allowed. It's allowed, but I do recommend that you prayed about it and discuss as husband and wife what your reasons are for wanting to have a new baby or wanting to avoid, and you can pray together. That God will give you both the desire for openness to new life, if it's his will for you to have a new baby now and to give you both a sense of contentment and peace if it's his will for you not to add to your family right now. And I got this idea for praying together from the wonderful people at was then called Living in Love, and now it's called Everyday in Love, and I'll put the link to their ministry in the show notes for this episode. And of course, you wanna seek what's God's will. You want to be oriented towards God's loving heart. But the church here points also to our human reason. You can also trust your own human intelligence and look to reason. To help guide this decision. So that's all part of discernment, right? We don't want to discern things out of just fear because sometimes we can get stuck thinking, oh, we're never like sometimes Oh, okay. So I hope that's helpful. Um, I will also add some more resources for understanding the terminology about just cause or serious cause in the show notes. God bless you.