Humanae Vitae, Natural Family Planning, and U.S. Catholic Identity: The Founding of the Couple to Couple League

Abstract:The origins of the Couple to Couple League (CCL) in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati date to 1972 when John and Sheila Kippley moved to Ohio and brought with them the newly- founded CCL, an organization committed to teaching and promoting Natural Family Planning. Drawing on archival research and ethnographic interviews with the Kippleys, this article posits that CCL's history is part of a twentieth-century intra-Catholic debate over what ought to define Catholic identity in the United States. The Kippleys founded CCL as a part of their commitment to being pro-Humanae Vitae Catholics. They largely defined their Catholicism by adherence to this papal teaching. This article argues that CCL's origins in Cincinnati illuminate how definitions of Catholic identity were reworked in the 1970s through Humanae Vitae's interpretations and relationships between the laity and hierarchy.