NFP Week July 19-25, 2026

Natural Family Planning Week
July 19-25, 2026
DESIGNED BY GOD
GUIDED BY LOVE
OPEN TO LOVE

Natural Family Planning Program
Mission:
Helping married couples to deepen conjugal love and achieve responsible parenthood is part of the Church's total pastoral ministry to Catholic spouses. Fulfillment of this ministry includes both education and pastoral care. This means "instilling conviction and offering practical help to those who wish to live out their parenthood in a truly responsible way" (Familiaris consortio, 35).

Natural Family Planning Awareness Week is a national educational campaign. The Natural Family Planning Program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops develops a poster each year with basic supportive materials. It is the individual dioceses, however, that offer a variety of educational formats in the local church to focus attention on Natural Family Planning methods and Church teachings that support their use in marriage.

Natural Family Planning (NFP) is the general title for the scientific, natural, and moral methods of family planning that can help married couples either achieve or postpone pregnancy.
NFP methods are based on the observation of the naturally occurring signs and symptoms of the fertile and infertile phases of a woman's menstrual cycle. No drugs, devices, or surgical procedures are used to avoid pregnancy.
Since the methods of NFP respect the love-giving (unitive) and life-giving (procreative) nature of the conjugal act, they support God's design for married love!

RESOURCES -
Natural Family Planning (Diocese of Belleville) -
Natural Family Planning

Springs in the Desert -
Infertility is a burden most couples don’t expect to carry. It can affect your marriage, your relationship with family and friends, and your relationship with God. Infertility often feels like a long and lonely path. But you are not alone! As a Catholic infertility ministry, Springs in the Desert is more than just a ministry; we are a place of respite, solidarity, and encouragement – wherever you are on the path of infertility, or in the experience of pregnancy loss. We’ve created a community here, and it’s built on faith in Christ and His good plan of fruitfulness for each one of us.
Springs in the Desert | Catholic Infertility Ministry

Pearl and Thistle -
Our unique incremental learning system begins even before the start of a girl's first period, growing and adding layers of "body literacy" as her needs change-- through puberty, adolescence, young adulthood, and all the way into perimenopause (...including NFP instruction for family planning as well)!
HOME - Pearl and Thistle

CHURCH TEACHING -
Integrate Church teaching on God's plan for married love and the gift of life in your communication efforts. These resources provide accessible text.

Married Love and the Gift of Life What does the Catholic Church teach about married love and the gift of life? This two-page resource answers that question. It is excerpted from the U.S. bishops' pastoral education resource, Married Love and the Gift of Life. Also available en Español.
What is "responsible parenthood?" The question of married love and the moral transmission of life is explained in the link above. A two-page bulletin Insert provides a brief summary of these teachings considered through the lens of love, mercy, and life.
The Wisdom of the Church provides quotes from Church documents on our Church Teaching page.

These articles are available for you to use in your educational efforts.

Why Natural Family Planning Differs from Contraception

Responsible Parents Are Open to Life

Redeemed Sexuality

Marriage: The Gift of Love and Life

A Boost for NFP

My Slogan: “Practice Saved Sex!”

Celebrating the Richness of Church Teaching

Love, Naturally!

NFP Saved My Health—Naturally!

Natural Family Planning
It’s worth it. Join the Revolution!

A message from Bishop Robert Barron - Chairman of the bishop's Committee for Laity, Marriage, Family Life and Youth