[UPDATE: Sadly this great event has been cancelled. For q's, go here.]

Just spoke with the  coordinator for this great summer conference happening in Kansas July 11-16, and it sounds like it’s going to be a GREAT event–a wonderful balance between medical, pastoral and legal talks and workships. You can register online at any of the links below, and contact information for the coordinator is at the bottom.

Please help spread the word about this timely and much-needed convocation (brochure links at the bottom)–blog about it, link to the NFPO Institute, tweet about it, Facebook it, and pass on the flyers to doctors, pastors, NFP teachers/ coordinators, or anyone who’d benefit from not only the great talks, but the kind of valuable networking that goes on at conference like this.

The NFP Outreach Summer Institute is sponsored by NFP Outreach & Benedictine College.There are three main tracks:

• Educators (to include NFP Promoters/ Instructors & Marriage Prep Instructors)
• Clergy & Chancery Communications Offices
• Medical Professionals & Hosptial Admin (Continuing Ed Credit avail.)

If you’re in the area, evening keynotes (and one afternoon keynote by Robert George) will be free of charge.

Keynote Speakers include:

• Dr. Janet Smith, Chair of Life Ethics, Sacred Heart Major Seminary (July 11)
• Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, Kansas City in Kansas (July 13)
• Dr. Robert P. George, Princeton University & Co-initiator “Manhattan Declaration”(15)
• John Allen, Jr., Vatican analyst for CNN & NPR (13th)
• Dr. Jan Hemstad, M.D., President, Catholic Medical Association
• Medical Doctors of the CMA (July 15 and 16)

Brochure for Medical Professionals & Admins

Brochure for Educators-front & back

Painting by Neilson Carlin at Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine

St. Gianna Molla, mother and physician, is called “the martyr of maternal love.” If you’re not familiar with St. Gianna’s life, read St. Gianna’s story here or here. Quick facts:

Born: 4 October 1922
Died: 28 April 1962
Canonized: 16 May 2004 by Pope John Paul II
Feast Day: April 28
Patron Saint of: mothers, physicians

Imagine the extraordinary occasion of attending the canonization to sainthood of your own spouse. Many people love and admire their husband or wife dearly, and many even have attained great virtue. Even of the holiest of laypeople, could you imagine attending a Mass declaring the heroic virtue and miraculous intercession of your deceased beloved surrounded by multitudes and lead by the Vicar of Christ?

On May 16, 2004 Pietro Molla, husband of Gianna Beretta Molla, did just that, with his three living children in attendance, including the youngest, Gianna Emmanuella, for whom her mother died.

St. Gianna is the first laywoman and doctor to be canonized, and is truly a saint for modern times. Pope John Paul II said in his homily on the day of her canonization,

Following the example of Christ, who “having loved his own… loved them to the end” (Jn 13: 1), this holy mother of a family remained heroically faithful to the commitment she made on the day of her marriage. The extreme sacrifice she sealed with her life testifies that only those who have the courage to give of themselves totally to God and to others are able to fulfil themselves. Through the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, may our age rediscover the pure, chaste and fruitful beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine call! “

But before St. Gianna decided God was calling her to the vocation of Holy Matrimony, though, she discerned very carefully, and even considered a consecrated vocation. She meditated, spent time in silent prayer, and patiently waited for the Lord to reveal His will. We should all do the same thing, waiting for the Lord in His own time, never forcing his hand, and obeying with great swiftness and generosity once we do understand His will.

Helen Hull Hitchcock, director of Women for Faith & Family, explains very eloquently St. Gianna’s beautiful balance between her vocational life as wife and mother, and her professional life as physician,

“In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring (2004), the Church officially recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an ordinary life – as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother.  Though she had once considered entering a religious order, instead she practiced medicine (receiving her medical degree in 1949, and her specialty in pediatrics in 1952). She devoted herself to caring for her patients, and her selflessness and dedication as a physician endeared her to the people.  But it was not only her practice of medicine that influenced them. She regarded her profession as a mission through which she could aid and nurture both bodies and souls. The young doctor’s devotion to her Catholic faith was well known in her community, and especially her instruction of young Catholic girls in their faith.”

So today, give thanks for the life and death of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, and pray for the unity of families and the holiness and conversion of physicians, that they may serve unselfishly, choose life and stop prescribing contraception.

Ways to celebrate St. Gianna’s feast day (honestly, it’s tough because it’s also the feast day of two other great saints, St. Peter Chanel & St. Louis Mary de Montfort):

• Thank a mother for their heroic and ordinary sacrifices.
• Thank a medical professional that doesn’t prescribe contraception or perform/ cooperate in sterilizations
• Read a book on the life of St. Gianna–St. Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother & Doctor by Pietro Molla, Elio Guerriero, James G. Colbert (Ignatius Press)
• Pray for a physician or pharmacist you know who still prescribes contraception, and give them Patty Schneier’s “Prove It, God! CD” or the book, “Physicians Healed.”
• Make a donation to the Catholic Medical Association.
• Order St. Gianna Holy Cards, and include them in your Mother’s Day cards.
• Check out St. Gianna on Facebook, or see one of her Facebook Groups here.

(H/t to Jeanne for the link.) Read this article. It’s largely editorial, but with a foundation of research.

As Phillip Jenkins has written at length (even publishing a book with the title), anti-Catholicism is the last acceptable prejudice. Jenkins isn’t Catholic, by the way. It never ceases to amaze me how vitriolic people can become when a scientist, doctor or otherwise respected professional who is also Catholic and might have the audacity to declare themselves a Catholic professional is automatically a misogynist. Never mind the fact that many of the members of the Catholic Medical Association–including the US CMA President–are women who are strong advocates of women’s wellness, women’s rights and family issues.

This comes from what a sociologist friend calls “tribal liberalism,” people who tout their tolerance with their scepters of slander, which is on the other side of the river from the “cosmopolitan liberals,” people who lean left (even far left), but incorporate social relics like logic, reason, listening and common courtesy into their dialogues, sometimes (GASP!) siding with commonsense coming from more conservative folks.

Any cosmo liberals out there?Or for that matter, cosmo conservatives? Tell me about a positive experience with someone across the aisle, especially on family planning.