Back in September, I received a Twitter tweet in response to my article, When Is The Right Time To Talk About Natural Family Planning?, from a CatholicMatch member in Italy. Thus, he and I began an interesting conversation about life and relationships in the Eternal City. 33 year-old Giuseppe Macario lives in Rome and is an Italian social entrepreneur, researcher and record-setting computer programmer. His concern regarding my article was that Natural Family Planning education was not available in Italy so, intrigued, I asked him to expound upon that and here are his responses:
What is the average single Italian person's attitude toward having a family?
Giuseppe: Some of my American friends got married in their 20s and have kids. In Italy, things are different: it is common for both men and women to stay single up to 35 or later, and not to desire to raise a family. This trend goes against the paramount importance that families used to have in Italy. Undoubtedly, the economic and financial crisis plays a role here.
As a single Catholic, do you find it difficult to be faithful, meaning, do you feel alone in your commitment to be chaste until marriage?
Giuseppe: Given the significant number of people who remain single and are not interested in dating, it is not difficult to make decisions that would otherwise be judged differently in other cultures, such as in America. Paradoxically, the real challenge here is to find a person to make plans with and start a family, which is why I decided to expand my horizons and join an American dating website.
You mentioned that NFP is not really taught in Italy. Why do you think that is?
Giuseppe: I am familiar with several parishes in the Rome area and none offers NFP classes, so I didn't know it was possible to actually take classes until I read your article on CatholicMatch about NFP in America. Afterwards, through a good friend and business partner who had a baby last year, I found out that Italy has 22 centers that promote Natural Fertility Regulation and train teachers under the supervision of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. According to their website there should be 770 Italian NFP teachers. However, considering that Italy has more than 60 million residents, plus about 10 million unregistered illegal immigrants, this equates to one teacher for almost one hundred thousand people. This figure is highly unbalanced and clearly shows that it is not easy to find teachers or classes.
My impression is that most Italians are not very interested in having babies. Unfortunately, just like Japan, we have reached a point where the elderly out-number Italian kids, which has inevitable social consequences. Due to the increasingly unfavorable economic situation, Italians tend to think that having kids is now a lot more expensive than it used to be. So, the less kids you have, the better. Since NFP is a great way to achieve a pregnancy, its methods don't appeal to Italian couples, which is sad because we all know a country that doesn't want kids is doomed.
Second, Italy has a strong pharmaceutical lobby too. Since companies see NFP as a threat to marketing and distribution of commercial contraceptives, they constantly strive to persuade the government to discourage the use of NFP in family planning centers. Keep in mind that almost the entire Italian healthcare system is run by the government.
Last but not least, active means of disinformation are being used against NFP. For instance, Italian journalists keep talking about the Knaus-Ogino method, which dates back to 80 years ago and is not taught anymore.
I am so glad Giuseppe took the time to entertain my questions and offer some insight. It brings even more perspective, in my opinion, to the reasons why Pope Francis called the Extraordinary Synod last month and why those discussions were necessary to begin a year ahead of the upcoming 2015 World Synod. Giuseppe is also a great example of the kind of members looking for a solid relationship at CatholicMatch. Thank you for all your emails, I enjoy hearing from you. Feel free to contact me at [email protected].
