Just reasons to postpone pregnancy

Learning to chart is the easy part. The harder question is when a couple should use what they know to postpone a pregnancy. The Church does not hand couples a checklist. She gives principles and trusts married people to apply them in conscience, before God. That trust is a gift, and also a responsibility.

What the Church teaches

Openness to life is part of the very meaning of marriage, and children are its supreme gift (CCC 2378, Gaudium et Spes 50). At the same time, the Church teaches responsible parenthood. Pope Paul VI wrote that responsible parenthood is exercised both by the generous decision to raise a large family and by the decision, made for serious reasons and with respect for the moral law, to avoid a new birth for the time being or even for an indefinite period (Humanae Vitae 10).

The Catechism says that for just reasons, spouses may wish to space the births of their children, while ensuring that this desire is not motivated by selfishness and conforms to the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood (CCC 2368). Humanae Vitae speaks of well grounded reasons arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances (Humanae Vitae 16).