Father Peter Stanley gave a talk on the Catholic Church’s position on contraception at a July 28 celebration at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Kasper Youth Center held in observance of Natural Family Planning Awareness Week. Jane Tisdale, a pioneer of the movement, was honored at the dinner.
Father Stanley said that natural family planning began in the 1960s while the Second Vatican Council was in progress and contraception was a huge topic. Pope Paul VI created a commission to study how contraception fit in with the morality of the Scriptures.
The commission report made a recommendation to the pope to allow the use of contraception, but Pope Paul VI—after taking the matter to prayer—wrote an encyclical called “Humana Vitae” in 1968. He reaffirmed the Catholic teaching that contraception goes against God and the natural law, and reaffirmed the beauty and sanctity of life and marriage.
“From the very beginning, God gave married people the special gift of participating in his creative power. In Genesis, God told us to go forth and multiply,” Father Stanley said.
According to Humana Vitae, God intended us to live in community as He does with the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Father Stanley said that there are two purposes for the conjugal act, one is unity and the other is procreation. Unity is an expression of self-sacrifice of one for the other and from that comes forth the fruit, children, which are the supreme gift of marriage. Children teach parents how to love. Parents learn how to be self-sacrificing and through the knowledge gained from natural family planning, they are able to act responsibly.
“You have a responsibility to learn how your body works. Your love and that expression to love must be open to life. The church recognizes that at times it is acceptable to put off the gift of life for a while. Couples must be chaste during these times. Chastity is the spiritual power that frees love from selfishness,” Father Stanley said.
David and Marie Galvan, married 32 years, spoke of their desire to put God first even before they were married. In the first two years of married life, the Galvans knew they were not yet ready to have children. They related how natural family planning made their marriage stronger and in the course of following God’s will, enhanced their love for one another.
If they were going to put God first than self-denial was important to them, they said.
“Self-denial helped me in other areas of my life: being in control of my feelings; that it’s not all about me; it helped with my friends and children; it taught me patience; and it taught me to love God above everything and everyone. We weren’t just talking the talk, now, we were walking the walk,” Marie Galvan said.
Realizing this would be a big sacrifice on his part, David Galvan questioned his love for God. “I had to trust in God for this natural family planning to work, because financially we were not prepared for a child at that time and I wanted to be a great example for my kids. I didn’t want to struggle in the beginning of our marriage,” he said.
For his wife, using the natural family planning method taught her to find joy in his caresses, his kisses and his empathy towards her.
“David was committing himself to me. He would come home, help with the kids and do dishes. That was making love. That was what love was all about,” she said.
“God did not say that it would be easy. He said it would be worth it. If we had used contraceptives, we would have refused God the fruits of our marriage that are our children. Who would we have sacrificed? I know that I would be a lot more selfish,” Marie Galvan said.
“I can’t imagine not having one of our kids,” David Galvan said. “We struggled financially, but God has carried us through many hard times. God has blessed us and continues to bless us, because we did it His way.”
The Galvans have five children and six grandchildren.
Educators and directors of natural family planning classes in the diocese and the South Texas Family and Health Corporation paid a special tribute to Tisdale, who recently passed away after a lengthy illness.
Tisdale was involved with natural family planning since the beginning. She trained under Drs. John and Evelyn Billings who developed the Billings Ovulation Method, a scientifically proven natural method to avoid becoming or to get pregnant.
“Jane was a woman of faith, always reinforcing the importance of love. She would say ‘God and natural family planning are insurance for marriage.’ She was a user and promoter of natural family planning. She taught for over 30 years for the Diocese of Corpus Christi and the South Texas Family and Health Corporation under our Natural Family Planning Program. She was our director,” said Tisdale’s friend Jane Garza.
Tisdale’s husband, Paul Tisdale, accepted a small token in honor of his wife.
“You don’t want to miss natural family planning, because you’re missing Christ at the center of your marriage,” Paul Tisdale said.
Classes for Natural Family Planning meet at Works of Mercy Conference Room at Sts. Cyril and Methodius Parish every third Tuesday of the month from 6:30-7:30 p.m. For more information contact Melissa Juarez at (361) 561-7779 or visit www.naturalpurose.org.
Classes for the Symptothermal Method meet at St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles Parish. For more information or to register call Steve or Ann Craig at (361) 767-1228. Classes for the Billings Method meet at the Natural Family Planning, 4455 SPID, Suite 28, in Corpus Christi. For more information, or to make an appointment, call Garza at (361) 852-0222.