The Diocesan Development Program for Natural Family Planning was the final in a series of organizations stretching back more than three decades that coordinated the efforts of the of the bishops of the United States to study, promote and disseminate information about natural family planning as an acceptable form of birth control for Catholics to practice.
Initially an office under Fr. (later Bishop) James T McHugh from 1964 to at least 1972 as the Family Life Bureau, the office primarily consisted as an effort to disseminate information about Church-approved methods of family planning. Fr. McHugh collected and forwarded on publications as well as publishing a number of articles about various aspects of family life, including natural family planning. However, this office did not have significant funding, and often referred applicants to a related office, the Human Life Foundation. At some point, it seems the Family Life Bureau merged into the Human Life Foundation.
The Human Life Foundation was established prior to 1969 as part of the effort, at the behest of Pope Paul VI to promote natural family planning among American Catholic families. Lawrence J Kane served as the executive director. Their operations primarily consisted initially of research into the opinions about natural family planning in Catholic families. In 1974, they conducted a small scale survey to gather information. Two years later, in 1976, they conducted a national survey sent to every diocese, to gather not only information about the dioceses and the attitudes about natural family planning but the status of women's groups, the training of seminarians in natural family planning, and a variety of other topics to gauge both the support and prevalence of natural family planning in American Catholic communities.
Surveys arrived back from a wide variety of sources, including not only Bishops' offices but Catholic hospitals, local Catholic organizations independently promoting natural family planning, and specific parishes where priests had been interested in natural family planning. The survey prompted a significant increase in interest in many dioceses about natural family planning, particularly requests for additional information and training materials, and the Human Life Foundation quickly became the central point from which information was disseminated and various local groups were tracked and put in contact with one another.
In addition to the official dioceses efforts, Catholic doctors, hospitals, professors, graduate students and others interested in natural family planning began to correspond with the Human Life Foundation, and share research and information. Many of them conducted studies about family planning locally or worked to develop programs that could further study this issue at universities.
It quickly became evident that in addition to many areas not having enough teachers or educational materials to provide local natural family planning instruction, the quality of education varied widely from place to place, which was of significant concern to the Human Life Foundation. Expert instructors, including Bob and Mary Kambic were dispatched to help locations set up natural family planning instruction as well as evaluate teachers and offer ways for them to improve on the accuracy and engaging presentation of their material. Since most of the natural family planning teaching efforts were done by volunteer couples with little medical training, ensuring accurate information was presented was always a concern.
Out of these efforts, regional meetings and events, usually sponsored by the individual diocese, but often featuring the Kambics or Kane were held around the country to coordinate strategies for teaching and provide access to the most recent research. There were also efforts, both local and national, to bring media attention to the subject, often by inviting members of the Catholic press to attend training sessions and report on natural family planning as an option for Catholic couples.
The significant attention being paid to natural family planning and the Human Life Foundation also brought interest from commercial entities and international foundations and organizations promoting natural family planning, although the Human Life Foundation remained skeptical of anything other than well tested, Church approved methods and generally declined to partner with any of the commercial organizations, they did provide information and shared strategies with Catholic efforts in several countries.
In 1979 a second survey went out nationwide to determine the state of natural family planning and how programs had evolved in over the past three years. By this point, there was a shift away from a central office over the various local offices to a central office supporting and coordinating with various well established local offices and efforts. By 1982, Lawrence Kane had moved on.
The office eventually became the Diocesan Development Program for Natural Family Planning, and their efforts largely consisted of hosting biennial meetings to coordinate national strategy, and establish teaching standards that would be brought back and disseminated locally. These meetings lasted from 1983 to 1991 and brought together teachers and researchers from across the country. Bishop James T McHugh, who had started these efforts in the 1960's, continued to be involved in these efforts and was frequently recognized for his long involvement.
The Bishop's efforts to promote Natural Family Planning continue to this day as the Natural Family Planning Program.
The first series, State Files, 1971-1983, in boxes 1-4, contains surveys, records correspondence, and other information relating to diocese level efforts to promote natural family planning.
The second series, Correspondence, 1964-1984, in boxes 4-5, contains correspondence and material exchanged with various organizations and individuals involved in the promotion of natural family planning.
The third series, Administrative Files, 1968-1983, in box 5, contains administrative files for the various offices, as well as publications and other documents related to the national effort.
The fourth series, Meeting Files, 1963-1993, in boxes 6-7, contains filed relating to meetings attended or hosted by the various natural family planning offices, including planning documents, handouts, feedback and session notes the national meetings from 1983 to 1993.
The fifth series, Publications, nd, box 8, contains publications sent to the various natural family planning offices, as well as copies of their official publications.
The Diocesan Development Program for Natural Family Planning consists of 5 series:
Twenty-five years or living persons.
Special Collections of the University Libraries at The Catholic University of America:
Other Institutions:
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Transfered from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on October 29th 2014.
Processing completed in 2016 by Chris Needham. EAD markup completed in 2016 by Chris Needham.
The first series contains surveys, records correspondence, and other information relating to diocese level efforts to promote natural family planning.
The second series contains correspondence and material exchanged with various organizations and individuals involved in the promotion of natural family planning.
The third series contains administrative files for the various offices, as well as publications and other documents related to the national effort.
The fourth series contains filed relating to meetings attended or hosted by the various natural family planning offices, including planning documents, handouts, feedback and session notes the national meetings from 1983 to 1991.
The fifth series contains publications sent to the various natural family planning offices, as well as copies of their official publications.