 The Church seeing large families as a sign of God 's blessing . " By its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory . " ( Gaudium et spes ) Children are the supreme gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves . ( ... ) true married love and the whole structure of family life which results from it , without <unk> of the other ends of marriage , are directed to <unk> the spouses to cooperate <unk> with the love of the Creator and <unk> , who through them will increase and <unk> his family from day to day . ( Gaudium et spes ) . " It recognizes that responsible <unk> sometimes calls for reasonable spacing or limiting of births and considers natural family planning as morally acceptable , but rejects all methods of artificial contraception . The Church rejects all forms of artificial insemination and fertilization because the techniques divorce the sexual act from the creation of a child . The Catechism states , " A child is not something owed to one , but is a gift ... ' the supreme gift of marriage . ' " 
