Vatican criticizes couples in marriages 'willingly made sterile'

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Couples who use natural family planning to have only one or two children allow "brief parentheses" in a marriage "willingly made sterile," said a new document from the Pontifical Council for the Family.

The document, "Family and Human Procreation," was released in Italian June 6 and was issued to mark the 25th anniversary of the council's establishment.

"Never before has the natural institution of matrimony and family been victim of such violent attacks," said the document, signed by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, council president.