Awakening Fertility Appreciation Within Families

In its Second Vatican Council, the Roman Catholic Church prescribes “a positive and prudent sex education” utilizing “a new and more appropriate language” when “introducing children and adolescents to the topic of sexuality”(GE). More recently, in Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis has reiterated this imperative, noting:

“It is not easy to approach the issue of sex education in an age when sexuality tends to be trivialized and impoverished…. Young people need to realize that they are bombarded by messages that are not beneficial for their growth towards maturity. They should be helped to recognize and to seek out positive influences, while shunning the things that cripple their capacity for love.” AL 302

Ideally, it is the child’s parents who provide positive examples of respectful, loving sexual relationships. Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that it is primarily the right and responsibility of parents to educate their children, especially in matters of faith and morality. That is the ideal.

But many Catholic parents are ill-equipped and lack the confidence to instruct their children on matters of sexual morality. Too often, today’s parents have had insufficient instruction on the topic themselves, and they were left vulnerable to secular influences in their youth. They remain skeptical about the effectiveness of fertility methods for family planning because they are inexperienced with it or misinformed by secular and market sources. Consequently, the misinformation is spread to their sons and daughters.

Then in high school, state-sponsored counselors and school nurses are the teens primary source of information. The teens face a vacuum of moral guidance which is filled with pamphlets on safe-sex, contraceptives, and gender confusion! Scores of misguided influences litter their heads through unsupervised use of social media. Early teen girls often begin taking oral contraceptives (upon doctor’s orders) to suppress moodiness or acne. A vicious circle of ignorance of human fertility is perpetuated.

Fortunately, there are some in the United States that are already working to reverse this trend. Many dioceses across the country are promoting the education and appreciation of fertility awareness among teen girls and boys, and their parents. In the Diocese of Memphis, Mary Pat Van Epps has enriched many families with her Mother-Daughter and Father-Son sessions which include fertility awareness instruction based on the Billings Ovulation Method and the Theology of the Body teachings of Pope St. John Paul II. Here in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, we are working to expand this ministry also. Already classes have been held at American Martyrs Parish in Manhattan Beach, St John Chrysostom Parish in Inglewood and at Notre Dame (All-Girls) Academy in West LA.

Using the scientifically proven Billings Ovulation Method, moms and daughters, fathers and sons learn to read the natural bodily signs that signal human fertility. Class topics include fertility awareness but also the sacredness of human life, the virtue of chastity, and a reverence for sexuality. The knowledge awakens in teens a greater appreciation for the complex and miraculous workings of their own fertile bodies.

As a result, a teen girl has a new respect for the dignity of her role as woman and life-bearer. Teen boys discover their own dignity and raison d’etre as they learn to respect the feminine genius. As a family, parents and teens remember their role in the future of the human race and the Kingdom of Heaven.