Debate on mandate is opportunity to teach about NFP, says Archbishop Cordileone

August 27, 2012

In a column for the Catholic Voice, the newspaper of the Oakland diocese, Archbishop-elect Salvatore Cordileone (who will soon be installed as head of the San Francisco archdiocese) argues that the political battle over the HHS contraceptive mandate is an opportunity for Catholics to explain Church teaching on contraception.

The primary issue in dispute is religious freedom, Archbishop Cordileone writes. But debate on the topic will inevitably include a discussion of contraceptive, and in that context, Catholics might question: “Why would the government require, for the sake of women's health, insurance coverage of a medication the World Health Organization classifies as a Class 1 carcinogen?” This year’s debate, he continues, “calls us to take advantage of this moment to educate our people on all the various aspects of the Church's teaching that, for grave reasons, a married couple may have recourse to the infertile periods of the woman's cycle in order to delay the begetting of new offspring.”

 

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Further information:

• Time to dispel myths around NFP (Catholic Voice)
• Archbishop-elect Cordileone: "It is time for us to dispel the myths about NFP." (Catholic World Report)