BRIGHTON -- When spreading the word about natural family planning (NFP), there's a difference between quirky and weird, warns Father Denis Nakkeeran, professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary in Brighton.

Quirky, he said, is good. Weird -- i.e., starting a conversation with "Let's talk about NFP methods" -- isn't.

"Weird does not bring people closer to Christ," Father Nakkeeran said.

He was speaking to an audience who attended the Archdiocese of Boston's NFP conference at St. John's Seminary on July 25. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops calls NFP "the scientific, natural, and moral methods of family planning that can help married couples either achieve or postpone pregnancy." It is a form of reproductive healthcare that, by following a woman's natural hormonal cycles, is in line with the Catholic Church's teachings on contraception and the Sacrament of Marriage.

The conference took place during National NFP Awareness Week, which was celebrated July 19-25. According to its mission statement, the purpose of the conference was "to celebrate a Catholic understanding of fertility and explore how and why Catholics should work across fields to better support women and couples in their childbearing years." That includes evangelization efforts like Father Nakkeeran discussed, and the work of medical professionals.

"It's less about what's going on outside our Church than what's going on inside," said Laura Aboitiz Rabideau, a primary care physician who co-organized the conference.

She said that those in the archdiocese with "a Catholic view of fertility" are isolated and don't know about each other's work. The conference was a way for them to unite.

"All the different people who can support couples, whether it's psychologists, doulas, lactation consultants, physical therapists, nurses," she said. "There's so much potential for interdisciplinary work."

The conference was sponsored in part by the Guild of St. Luke, Boston's society for Catholic medical professionals. Guild President John Barravecchio said the secular medical establishment is often unaware of NFP, which means women are not getting the full spectrum of care options. At the conference, he heard from a woman whose doctor didn't empathize with her experience having a miscarriage, and didn't seem to know how to help.

"A lot of the restorative reproductive medicine knowledge is not known generally by the greater medical community," he said.

Physicians Marguerite Duane and Bob Motley founded FACTS (Fertility Appreciation Collaborative to Teach the Science) About Fertility in 2010, after Duane taught a first-year natural family planning class at Georgetown University. Her students loved the class, with some wondering why it wasn't part of the general curriculum. FACTS's booth at the conference declared that NFP was "not your mother's rhythm method."

"At FACTS, we share the science of the way the human body is designed, the truth about our reproductive physiology and our fertility, which aligns beautifully with the teachings of the Catholic Church," Duane said.

FACTS's mission is guided by faith but rooted in science. Duane wants to educate students, medical professionals, and couples of every faith. She spoke at the conference about "Ovulation as a Sign of Health."

At the booth next to hers, Andres Valenzuela cradled his six-week-old son Samuel, the youngest of his and his wife Christina's five children. Christina Valenzuela co-organized the conference. She is a certified NFP instructor and the owner of Pearl and Thistle, a service providing "lifelong body literacy education for Catholics of all ages and stages." She is trained in the Boston Cross Check method of NFP, so named because practitioners "cross check" women's "biomarkers for ovulation" to determine when they are most likely to conceive. She suspects that Samuel is the conference's youngest registrant. Though she said bringing him was out of "necessity," his presence was a witness to Catholic family life.

Deacon Thomas Heyne and his wife Nancy Hernandez-Heyne, physicians and advocates for natural family planning, also spoke at the conference. Attendees also discussed real-life case studies of couples undergoing reproductive challenges. Their discussions would be presented to the seminarians at St. John's for them to study. Father Nakkeeran spoke about how the Church's teachings on fertility honor "the dignity of the human person," and how, while doctors provide physical healing, priests can provide spiritual healing to couples struggling with infertility or unwanted pregnancies.

"While the issues usually around fertility are primarily tackled in the physiological and psychological realms, there is a lot that can be done in the pastoral realm, as well," he said.

Couples struggling with infertility often ask why God has allowed such a thing to befall them. They may wonder if God is punishing them. Infertility may push Catholic couples to what Father Nakkeeran called "illicit artificial interventions" like in vitro fertilization. Unwanted pregnancies lead to a different set of fears for couples.

"There's a fear of pregnancy, and therefore, indirectly, there becomes a fear of the child himself or herself," he said. "There is a lot that's been targeted against a future potential child. The child, at that point, at least in the abstract, is seen as a threat or seen as an enemy."

Fertility problems typically aggravate existing psychological wounds. Couples feel a loss of control, Father Nakkeeran said, which is why they turn to "illicit reproductive technologies."

"Spiritually, this translates to a rather unhealthy disposition of the soul," he said. "Similarly to the original sin of Adam and Eve, the desire for control leads one to grasp for what one sees as pleasing to the eyes, grasping for what I want, doing it on my terms by my own power, rather than the disposition of receiving from God."

He prayed with one struggling couple, so they could relinquish the need for control and the wife's womb "could become holy ground." Months later, she became pregnant and gave birth to a healthy baby. Father Nakkeeran said such "supernatural realities" can't be studied by the scientific method, but science does factor into them.

"The way that our spiritual health can have an effect on our ability to engage in these difficult circumstances, and so in the area of pastoral counseling and spiritual direction, we can see where the identity lies are present," he said.

"The identity lies" are false ideas that lead people away from God. To protect couples from these lies, Father Nakkeeran said, doctors, clergy, and laypeople should be in sync as "the family of the Church."

"When a couple is feeling alone and isolated, thinking that they are going through something that is unique, other couples who face similar situations can offer solidarity," he said.

Catholics also need to be educated about their Church's teachings on fertility. That begins with conversations about the subject in a welcoming way that reveals God's love. That can be difficult in the secular world and in traditionalist communities, where there's a social stigma around talking about fertility or reproduction.

"The couple that is experiencing infertility is not defined by the circumstances of their infertility," Father Nakkeeran said. "They're defined by their being made in the image and likeness of God."