Medical Science
It has been our experience that the term “poor” doesn’t apply exclusively to those who have fewer economic means to support themselves. It also applies to anyone who has the humility to be open to God’s plan for fertility that is written into the very structure of the human body. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matt. 5:3) are the opening words of the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord Jesus’ encouragement to all who seek to do God’s will.
Couples from low-income brackets, in rich and poor countries alike around the world, fall prey to the insatiable desire for higher profits by the pharmaceutical companies and their despicable practice of concealing information from the public on the serious side-effects of artificial methods of birth control and their abortifacient effect.
These companies, with the collaboration of unscrupulous physicians who have lost their true vocation of medicine, have become accomplices in destroying temporarily and often permanently women and men’s precious gift of fertility.
But let us keep a proper perspective about the true cause of these problems. The founder of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the late Professor Jerome Lejeune, once said:
“It is not medicine we should fear, but the folly of mankind. Every day, the experience of our predecessors increases our ability to change nature by using its own laws. But using this power wisely is what each generation must learn in its turn. We are certainly more powerful today than ever before, but we are no wiser: Technology is cumulative, wisdom is not.”
Thus the business of buying and selling fertility through technology has cheapened the very concept of procreation and the inherent dignity of the child. It has further inculcated the contradictory attitudes of revulsion and entitlement toward children that betray the very essence of what a child is: a gift. Others, after hav- ing made many mistakes in the area of human sexuality, may feel a deep sense of self-reproach and feel wounded when their consciences finally awaken. Many repent of these mistakes and feel a strong desire to return to Natural and Divine Law.
Most problems for achieving or postponing pregnancy naturally can be conquered by accepting with humility that God created for us a short window of fertility that must be cherished and protected. These revelations are destined solely for the spouses who wish to live their lives in harmony with God’s laws for man and nature and who believe in life, believe in love that nurtures life and those families that nurture their children for the well-being of humanity, for that is where our future lies.
Government Leaders
We try to influence government entities not to violate the Natural Law. The reason being that as we discover how beautifully created and delicately designed are the functions that govern a couple’s ability to conceive, we found through our studies that it enhances the intimacy of the matrimonial vows and deepens the love of the husband and wife. Similarly, the spouses find that, as they understand and accept the woman’s short phase of fertility, which requires only a few days of abstinence per cycle, a properly formed conscience will help them postpone pregnancy when it is absolutely necessary.
Even the poor and illiterate have been able to space their children with a 99 percent success rate among the poorest of the poor, as Mother Teresa’s study in Calcutta reported in the British Medical Journal as far back as September 18, 1993.
Consequently, people won’t be so foolish in the future to endanger their lives with such dangerous steroid chemicals and abortifacients, when a more effective and natural alternative exists which is free of charge.
Furthermore, the couple’s acceptance of the laws of nature that pertain to the wondrous gift of procreation has proven to enhance the spouses’ love and communication as they cooperate with nature for the sake of the physical and moral well-being of one another. In this way, the man and the woman accept responsibility for their combined fertility.
Religious support
Over the years we have received incredible support from the most outstanding religious leaders of our time. Saint John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa who always spoke of the benefits of Natural Family Planning and strongly rejected the use of artificial methods of birth control, sterilization and abortion.
His Holiness always gave us his unconditional support and encouraged us to continue our defense for the family. Mother Teresa also accompanied us to most of our international congresses for the family which took place in Europe, Asia and the Americas. And she asked us to please train her Sisters to be teachers of the Ovulation Method to poor families around the world.
We are living in difficult times for the parish priest and the traditional marriage. Today 83% of Catholic women are using artificial methods of birth control and a large percentage are getting sterilized. Consequently they are not living in a state of Grace. Today’s parents are not receiving the proper catholic formation which they must transmit to their children; whole generations will grow up without knowing the blessings of the sanctity of marriage.
