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?

In an unrelated story, there’s a group of people in Madison headed to California, but found on flight to Rome.

UPDATE: In a related unrelated story, support Bishop Morlino.