July 20, 2012 | catholicnewsherald.com catholic news heraldI
The Poor Clares
Batrice Adcock
NFP empowers and liberates The soul of woman “ S Jesus, I trust in you” – this is the phrase associated with the increasingly popular devotion to the Divine Mercy. Jesus promises to give us grace for help in daily life in accordance with our degree of trust. How much do we trust when looking to Jesus in prayer to help us make a generous, yet responsible decision about family planning? Do we take time to inform our consciences on related Church teaching? It is so easy for many to trust our culture instead, with its
overwhelming pressure to contracept. Natural family planning (NFP) is an umbrella term for many methods of family planning which are morally acceptable. Couples are trained to track the menstrual cycle and identify the fertile time, which is about a week. The facts surrounding NFP versus artificial contraceptive use make a compelling argument in favor of trusting Church teaching. Effectiveness must first be considered. Modern methods of NFP are up to 99.6 percent effective. This is not the old “rhythm method”! NFP methods can also help couples achieve pregnancy. For couples struggling with infertility, Naprotechnology-based treatments, which are associated with NFP and aim at identifying and correcting underlying health problems, are between about 38 and 81 percent effective, depending on the cause of infertility. The effectiveness of in-vitro fertilization, which is riddled with ethical problems, significant cost and health risk, is only between 21 and 27 percent effective. Another important consideration is health risk associated with hormonal contraceptive use. Side effects range from nausea, headaches and decreased sexual interest to high blood pressure, depression and stroke. The World Heath Organization has classified oral contraceptives as Group 1 carcinogens based on strong evidence that they may cause cancer. This is reinforced by several recent studies pointing to the increased risk of premenopausal breast cancer in women who have taken oral contraceptives. The most serious risk is not for the woman, but for babies she may conceive, as all forms of hormonal contraception and the IUD have the potential of causing early abortions. By contrast, using NFP gives women valuable health information. The American Academy
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of Pediatrics and College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists have called the menstrual cycle another vital sign. Health problems can be detected in NFP charts early in their progression, offering the possibility for more effective treatment. A related point is that there are alternatives to the birth control pill for treating common women’s health problems such as irregular cycles and heavy bleeding. The pill does not treat the underlying problem, and significant health risks are added. Other benefits of using NFP include better communication and a lower divorce rate between spouses who are faced monthly with the task of evaluating whether it is a good time for potential conception. Issues in the family – financial, health or otherwise – remain on the table and are more quickly resolved. The Church encourages couples to discern prayerfully and practically, considering their responsibilities. The divorce rate of less than 3 percent among NFP couples is due not only to this healthy communication, but to the respect spouses show each other in cooperating with the woman’s physiology. Rather than risking the woman’s health for temporary pleasure from contracepted sex, the man is willing to love her unconditionally and exercise self-control. Feminists can jump on a new band-wagon here! The list of NFP benefits goes on, including environmental respect, shared responsibility for family planning between spouses, the ability to be used in special circumstances, such as after coming off hormonal birth control or having a baby, but perhaps the greatest is that just implied: Spouses learn the self-giving and sacrificial love of Jesus! Married couples vow to love that is free, total, faithful and fruitful. Isn’t a contracepting couple that feels the need to use pornography or some other perverse behavior to increase sexual interest enslaved to sexual desire? Or, isn’t a couple using a barrier, physical or chemical, or through sterilization, in effect neutering themselves? Are they making a complete gift of themselves in one flesh, imaging God, as male and female, as Scripture teaches? Do they not in effect mock the love that Jesus showed us on the Cross and asked us to imitate? The Church is not waging a war on women, but is standing up in defense of women, offering an option that is empowering, improves marriages and deepens faith. Women are being liberated, and families are being renewed. In light of the facts, we are encouraged to trust the Church!
Batrice Adcock is the director of the diocesan Natural Family Planning Program for Catholic Social Services. National NFP Awareness Week 2012, “Faithfully Yours,” will be celebrated July 22-28. This annual education campaign by the U.S. bishops coincides with the anniversary of the papal encyclical “Humanae Vitae” (July 25) which articulates Catholic beliefs about human sexuality, conjugal love and responsible parenthood. The dates also mark the feast of Sts. Joachim and Anne (July 26), the parents of the Blessed Mother.
omething sadly lost in our world today is an understanding and appreciation of the beauty of true womanhood. Women have been encouraged by our culture to set aside the special gifts connected to their femininity and embrace an asexual self-assertiveness that focuses on equality and an over-emphasized personal autonomy. What’s lost in all this is the acknowledgment of the qualities inherently planted in the feminine nature which are irreplaceably valuable. In his classic novel “Les Miserables,” Victor Hugo outlines the attractive elements of the feminine spirit that almost defies definition: “Woman feels and speaks with the tender instinct of the heart, that infallibility. Nobody knows like a woman how to say things that are both sweet and profound. Sweetness and depth, this is all of woman; this is all of Heaven.” Women in our world today have come to be ashamed of the “sweetness” and “tenderness” that Hugo referred to. Too often, these feminine gifts are considered to betray weakness. Far from proclaiming women’s rights, our culture has bought into the lie that womanhood is submissive and somehow second-rate. Instead of being proud of womanhood and its equal dignity alongside that of man, that cultural norm unwittingly reiterates that male characteristics are the only ones truly deserving of respect. What our world needs now more than ever is women who are not afraid to be women. But before we can get to that point, it is necessary to first reeducate ourselves on what authentic femininity is. St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein as she is better known, understood quite deeply what it meant to be created by God as a woman, and what He intended to entrust and manifest through the gift of femininity. Through her studies and prayer, she began to grasp that something very precious had been lost in her own time, one that saw the birth of what was widely billed as women’s emancipation. Stein was no ultra-conservative traditionalist. She was on the front lines herself – pursuing a career in the field of phenomenology, which was at the time almost exclusively dominated by men. She was an independent, single and highly successful professor until entering a Carmelite convent in her 40s. It should follow, then, that her writings on womanhood would contain a balance not often seen, and sorely needed, nearly a century later. In a lecture with the unfortunately dry title “Fundamental Principles of Women’s Education,” Stein paints
a captivating portrait of what she defines as the essential marks of a woman’s soul. She states that a woman’s soul is made to be expansive, quiet, warm, clear, self-contained, empty of itself, and mistress of itself. Each item in this list of gifts is rich in meaning and depth. Some may seem at first glance to be contradictory. How can one be self-contained and empty of oneself ? The reality, however, is that each builds upon the others in developing the characteristics that are so familiarly feminine. A woman’s soul is naturally compassionate and receptive to others. When we think of womanhood, we think of a gentle embracing of others, a deep spiritual quality that seems so closely tied to the ethereal, the eternal. There is an intrinsic openness and acceptance of the beauty of every creature and child of God, even if present only in potential. There is present a quiet and warm tenderness which sees the burdens carried by each soul, and nurtures the emotional life of each which is so often dangerously fragile. Woman is fashioned, in Stein’s words, “to be a shelter in which other souls may unfold” and be nourished and cherished with authentic love. She looks at these qualities as pointing to the two basic vocations of woman: to the role of companion and support to man, and to motherhood. Though these gifts may indeed be instinctual to some degree in women, they must be formed, guided and developed. Without the proper discipline and curbing of extremes, they can lead to pitfalls. A woman may become too possessive of those she loves, or she may play on the power of others’ emotions to control or get her own way. She may use the ability to perceive the needs and feelings of others more as a tool to satisfy curiosity or to distract herself from what is most important. It is here that women must pause and reflect once more on the ideals of woman’s soul. She may gaze upon these lived out and personified by the most perfect of women, Our Blessed Lady. In the coming weeks, we will reflect more in depth on each of these qualities and gifts, and see how they may be lived out in the daily lives of women and brought to perfection through lives of grace. It is time to rediscover and relearn the truly feminine, and for us to be proud of the incredible beauty of womanhood which God created. Sister Marie Thérèse of the Divine Child Jesus is professed with the Poor Clare Nuns of Perpetual Adoration St. Joseph Monastery in Charlotte. Learn more about the Poor Clares at www.stjosephmonastery.com. This is the first in a five-part series exploring Edith Stein’s views on womanhood. In the next edition: “Shelter of souls.”