As you may know, I recently moved from the Madison area in Wisconsin to Denver, but a friend back home sent me an article published in the Madison Catholic Herald about Natural Family Planning, and the future of the NFP Program there in light of recent job cuts.
As a former Family Planning Coordinator, I know diocesan and Church layoffs and downsizing has been a common occurrence. Unfortunately, one of the first programs and personnel to go is the NFP or Marriage and Family Life work. If our bishops and leaders understood the devastation of contraception and the marriage-building of NFP, would they cut their NFP Coordinators? I would hope not, but I do know that there are many factors involved in those decisions.
I don’t want to toot my own horn about this program because it was a real team effort supported by great bosses and a great Bishop, but we did receive a lot of opposition and criticism for our efforts, and not just from the laity, so the following statements were a little (small) boo-ya to the spiritually invirile detractors who refused to see the fruit of Humanae Vitae Evangelization.
“We realized people would struggle with the teachings and programs, but that struggle would ultimately bear much fruit. Jesus didn’t come to bring comfort and complacency; he came to bring love and truth. We owe it to Christ and the people of God to give them the fullness of truth and the healing they’ve been looking for,” said Smith.
Smith added, “Pastors and parishioners of the diocese should be grateful to Bishop Morlino and Andy for taking such a bold stance on marriage. It is life-changing and on par with the best marriage programs in the country.”
What’s the current state of your NFP Program, and what kind of resources do you need? Any awesome stories of persecution and perseverance? I know you have those stories. It’s out there. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?
8 Responses to NFP Awareness Week Report from Madison
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When I lived in Lubbock I heard quite a bit about NFP (was where I first learned it existed really.. I took home a pamplet and knew I’d practice it someday). But other than at my old job (Catholic bookstore) I hadn’t seen so much about it here. I knew there’s classes at other Churches and that one of my inlaws does it… (we’ve actually talked about it too) But that’s it. Well, last Sunday there was a small paragraph in the bulletin about it! I about did a happy dance lol.
our diocese (houston-galveston) is lucky to have the support of Cardinal DiNardo and a very hard working teaching couple staff…scratch that, we are blessed with them and i know its taken alot of concentrated effort to make it happen. However little things like parishes making us pay to use their meeting space and electricity during class time has certainly not been encouraging…
I’m in the Denver diocese and it is heavily promoted for engaged couples. They have to take a class and I’ve found people are really accepting or not at all and just go through the motions to be able to get married in the church. I do know a lot of women who use NFP, so I think the class for engaged couples is great and is working.
However, I’ve never heard promotion of NFP besides the class requirement for engaged couples. I think they are missing out on couples who may have been married elsewhere (where there was no requirement), couples who may have converted, or maybe older couples who are now looking for alternatives. I’ve never heard a priest discuss NFP during mass, nor do I think my church has active NFP groups. If they do, they are not visible.
Jeanne, I do think that pastors in the Archdiocese of Denver may take it for granted that it’s mandatory, so therefore they don’t need to actively preach/catechize/promote. Hard to believe (but then again, maybe not) since there are a number of really rockin’ priests in the Archdiocese of Denver, not to mention an uber duper AB and Auxiliary. Perhaps we should start a letter writing campaign to the Archbishop and the Office for Clergy?
Alison, you are blessed to have Cardinal DiNardo. What a rock star in the episcopacy! I’m sorry to hear that parishes make you pay. That happened to me once when I was working in the Diocese. A parish was going to charge THE DIOCESE for using their space, when the diocese charges a really minimal rate (or free) for parishes to have used our really prime chancery space. Perhaps you could look for another parish, a Catholic hospital, or library location? If it’s your own parish, for crying out loud, they should *not* be charging you on principle. (Unless they have no principles, and hate NFP. In which case, you might want to pray and fast, and put some Holy Salt around your parish.)
Every little bit, helps MamaK: the bulletin, a brochure there, a mention here….that’s how conversion happens. See my most recent post on marketing NFP. Perhaps I should do a follow-up post on “7 simple ways to promote NFP”?
I am the new (just a year and a half) NFP director for the Charlotte diocese in NC.. Our Bishop is very supportive! He created my position (full time) based on a talk he had with our great JPII on building up family life. I have a lot of great resources–teaching couples, NFP only doctors, etc. It has been nice to be able to network and streamline the various NFP and related services in our diocese.
Yes, this is a very important ministry–one I feel very blessed and humbled to have. Many families and individuals are broken as a result of the sexual revolution. There is much hope now as we have excellent educational platform, amazing resources, and an audience who does not realize how hungry and restless they are for the truth!
I’ve been frustrated too by having to work around fees that churches want to charge–when I come to them and provide resources and classes for free. I have gotten around the fee by using a smaller room–usually a conference room which is always set up. That has not been a problem, as class attendance still is usually low.
Oh, and Mama Kalila, I submitted a comment on your blog about the Two Day Method today.
Blessings!
Batrice, congratulations on such an awesome job (and huge responsibility). Praise God that your position is still in existence through rough budget times. It’s Bishop Jugis in Charlotte, right? What’s the level of clergy education and preaching on Humanae Vitae/ contraception/ NFP issues? This is one of the number one complaints, and the reason why last year we created in Madison “Clergy Packets” for NFP Week, which included a bunch of homily helps, Catholic Updates on NFP, a CD called “Why NFP is a priority in my parish” and brochures for NFP Outreach, a great priest ministry that specializes in NFP Preaching and NFP Parish Missions.