Are you ready for NFP Awareness Week?!?!

I’ll tell you who is, friends: Fathers for Good, the awesome initiative of the Knights of Columbus. If you’ve not been tracking with these fellas, the KC’s launched this sort of holy man-cave initiative a couple years ago, and they’ve been doing great things to promote authentic masculinity and fatherhood, to include….yes, natural family planning and the culture of free, total, faithful and fruitful love. Hipster Catholic fellas, are you KC’s? If you aren’t yet, the launch of FFG is if nothing a game changer for the KCs and their constant support for love and life, so join. Mr. NFPworks is, in fact, a third degree night.

Anywho…..I’m pluggin’ them because 1) KC’s FFG Initiative rocks, and 2) Because they recognized that there’s a growing moving movement of NFPers/ family advocates who are young culture engagers, including  a little featurette of yours truly that hit the web today:

Is the Church’s message on natural family planning (NFP) reaching young couples? Jessica M.H. Smith thinks we all could be doing a better job of spreading the good news on NFP so she started a blog that has created an online buzz.

She is married for five years (with no children yet) and lives with her husband in Central Wyoming, where Fathers for Good flagged her down via e-mail in advance of “NFP Awareness Week” (July 24-30).

Fathers for Good: How did you get into blogging about NFP?

Jessica M.H. Smith: Four years ago I became the first full-time coordinator in the Diocese of Madison. I quickly realized that a lot of NFP promotion was boring, unfunny and uninteresting. Although the target market for NFP was largely (though not exclusively) young adults, there was a distinct un-young staleness to it all. My well-formed Catholic peers think the culture of Humanae Vitae is beautiful, relevant and exciting, so why was NFP promotion so uninspired? A simple and free way to light some fires and get the gears going and drive traffic to our diocesan site? Start a blog with a commentary on all things NFP/ Family Life related.

Keep reading here….

What do you think? Is the Church’s message reaching young couples? (Not just you, rock stars…all your peers in the pews and beyond.) How can we help this dialogue with youth and young adults in the contraceptive culture? Dream big. What do you want to see? What do you wish you would have seen? For you reverts and converts to NFP, what do you wish you would have known now that you didn’t know then? Things can change, and you can be a part of that right here

To all you fathers and spiritual fathers out there–a belated Happy Father’s Day!

The Knights of Columbus have taken an awesome turn in the last several years under the leadership of Carl Anderson. They’ve sponsored sacred art, encouraged vocations, helped the poor, and in their new campaign, “Fathers For Good,” they encourage responsible, nourishing fatherhood. Simple, yet powerful. My favorite male saint, St. Joseph, gets a nod as model father, which I love. Also, there’s a great article by Tim Drake on priests as spiritual fathers, key father-figures often overlooked on this day. If it’s not too late (send an email or leave a phone message!), wish your pastor and priest-friends a happy Father’s Day.

I know nourishing faith and family implies a promotion of natural family planning, but considering contraception is one of the most dangerous things for a family’s faith and survival, it’s interesting that it’s not found a great voice on this site yet. Catholic writers–get your email and writing on!