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NFP Awareness Week Temperature Check

Events, Humanae Vitae, NFP Awareness Week, NFP Testimony 14 Responses »

Jul 192010

USCCB's NFP Awareness Poster 2010

[Update: as was pointed out in the comments section, NFP Awareness Week this year has changed to begin July 25th, rather than culminate on the anniversary of Humanae Vitae's release. Take note! You have time!!!]

No pun intended on the title!

How did your NFP Awareness Week begin this weekend? Did your parishes get something going? Posters? Bulletin articles? What’s happening in your area? Or perhaps, what’s not happening in your area?

I had a panic attack last weekend when I realized NFP Awareness Week was coming up and I knew it was completely off my pastor’s radar. To make things more difficult, he’d just left for a trip abroad, so the possibility of getting approval for my ideas was slim. Uggh. I still shot off an email with a bullet point list of ideas. The day after I sent it, I was inundated at work, and never got/ made the time to do any of my things. There’s still time for some of them, I suppose, but Sunday is really the launching point for the week. Here’s my list of things I wanted to do/ advocate:

Order or print out a couple NFP Awareness Week Posters–theme this year: “Trust: God has a plan for your marriage”
Have Prayers of the Faithful taken from the USCCB’s suggested prayers for this week
A mention in the homily about trusting God and how this relates to our family choices and openness to children
Have some catchy brochures available in the vestibule–I can just print ones posted online
Include a bulletin insert (such as the one here) in the bulletin
Have a bulletin article telling people that I can help answer questions about NFP and family planning.

On a positive note, I was happy to find out that we have four NFP Instructors in the Diocese of Cheyenne (the entire state), when I wasn’t expecting to have more than one or two. One of them is even a Creighton Model Practitioner! So if you’re in Wyoming and looking for an NFP Instructor, shoot me an email!

NFPworks Speaking in Denver April 11th

Events No Responses »

Mar 162010

I’ll be giving my version of Janet Smith’s “Contraception: Why Not” called “Family Planning: Thinking Outside the Pill” at the Denver Cathedral CLAY Group, April 11th at 7:45pm (after 6:30pm Mass) in the parish rectory basement.

The talk will cover contraception, its false promises, what the Church really teaches on marriage, family, fertility and family planning, and what what the deal is with Natural Family Planning (NFP).

Questions that will be addressed include:

Contraception helps women and families? Why is the Church against helping ease family stress?
What about overpopulation? Isn’t contraception helping this?
Doesn’t contraception help prevent unwanted pregnancies and lower the abortion rate…isn’t the Church against abortion?
I need the Pill for medical reasons. Isn’t that okay?
NFP isn’t effective. If we really need to postpone a pregnancy, why would I even use NFP?
I’m not Catholic. Isn’t NFP just a Catholic thing?

….and more!

Facebook invite is here.

NFP Intro Class in South Bend, IN

Classes, Events No Responses »

Mar 132010

SOUTH BEND — An introduction to Natural Family Planning will be conducted from 7-9 p.m. Thursday at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church meeting room.

Presenters include Janet Bettcher, a registered nurse and director of Natural Family Planning of St. Joseph County, and Rick Becker, a registered nurse and member of the nursing faculty at Bethel College.

For those wishing to continue learning the method, another session will be held March 25. To register, please call (574) 234 – 5411 or e-mail nfpstjoseph@catholic.org.

Theresa Notare, USCCB NFP Director, to Speak in NJ

Events, NFP Friends No Responses »

Mar 132010

From the Messenger-Gazette in New Jersey:

“HILLSBOROUGH — St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church will host a Respect Life Celebration on Sunday, March 21, at 3 p.m.”

[This event]…”will be an afternoon of prayer, reflection and fellowship. Everyone is invited to share in two short Byzantine Catholic prayer services and to hear a presentation by Theresa Notare of the Natural Family Planning Program of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops….”

“Reservations are not required, but would be helpful for planning. For more information or to make reservations, call 908-725-0615.

The church is on Brooks Boulevard.”

Meaningful Volunteer: NFP Not a Modern Method

Cognitive Dissonance 14 Responses »

Mar 112010

Meaningful Volunteer is a volunteer placement organization currently operating in Uganda and Philippines. They place volunteers. They also teach the Standard Days Method of NFP as part of Project Lifecycle, their effort to provide family planning options in accord with the religious and ethical needs of the countries they serve. Yay, you’re thinking.

Well, except for the fact that they don’t really know that much about NPF, and evidently resent it.

They posted on the their Facebook & Twitter account Tuesday at link to an article about the Church in the Philippines, who’s been in a long, long fight against secularist pressures to mainline contraceptive methods into their country,

“Why Project Lifecycle is forced to used natural family planning methods and not modern methods like the pill and condoms.”

Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t NFP a modern method? (We can have a discussion about the downfalls of SDM another time. Additionally, SDM is not the only method available in the Philippines.) Also, according to MV’s description of Project Lifecycle, this program was established to respect the regional religious and ethical preferences where they serve. Yet, this type of attitude flies in the face of the respect they supposedly trying to show.

So, if you could, please stop by MV’s Facebook page and/ or reply to their recent Tweet on this topic, letting them know that 1) NFP is a modern method and it’s amazing (your own words–whatever), and 2) Respect the countries they serve; Nobody’s forcing them to do anything–if they don’t want to teach SDM, let Project Lifecycle go. In order to comment on their FB page, you have to become a fan of MV (you can undo this later if you want), and if you want to reply to a Tweet, I believe you need to follow first. Small price to let them know.

Update: Here’s Meaningful Volunteer’s reply to me on Facebook (Please do jump in on FB if you disagree with this!):

oops. I stand corrected. SDM is obviously a modern method.

I would disagree that _natural family planing_ is a modern method though. People have been avoiding having babies by natural means ever since humankind got the whole “sperm + egg = babies” concept.

I would also wholeheartedly disagree with the link on njnfp.org that states natural family planning methods are 99% effective.

Why is it that people take about 10 seconds to look at something–not being as scientific as they claim they are–then decide that NFP is still what they incorrectly judge it to be? What really gets me is that they think SDM is more effective than NFP (Ovulation and Sympto-thermal).

Childishness About Children

Quotes, Uncategorized No Responses »

Mar 092010

Cathy cartoon

In a ‘Cathy’ cartoon, one character asks, ‘Aren’t you worried about running out of time to have a baby, Cathy?’ After a few comments, Cathy poignantly concludes, ‘I’m torn between wanting to have one and wanting to be one.’

Sadly, this may sum up the inner conflict of a number of young adults.

–Kimberly Hahn, Chosen and Cherished: Biblical Wisdom for Your Marriage

Posted by Jess at 3:18 pm Tagged with: Cathy Cartoon, Child Free, Children, Family, Natural Family Planning, NFP

DC Area Contraception-Free Pharmacy Closes

Morality & Ethics, NFP Friends, News, Pharmaceutic Continuity No Responses »

Mar 062010

Many people would consider the phrase “contraception-free pharmacy” an oxymoron, but I think it’s a badge of honor. It shows a pro-fertility, pro-family mentality that is well aware that not only is the Pill (and other contraceptives) not a panacea, but that it has terrible side effects that wreck the physical, mental, social, relational, and spiritual state of women and families, and thus is bad for society at large.

DMC Pharmacy, one of the rare contraception-free pharmacies in the United States, near Washington, DC, has closed its doors effective two days ago due to lack of customer and financial support. CNA covers the story here.

This is so sad and frustrating on several levels. It takes so much courage and sacrifice to make the decision to go against the grain and do the right thing, and to not be supported on principal by two large parishes (totaling 20,000+ parishioners!) says a lot about those parishes. I mean, I’m taking a leap on my inference here, but I find it hard to believe that two parishes really living their faith could not find it in themselves to help a brutha out. But this is the DC area. I used to live in the DC area, and though the DC area is a quasi-mecca for a cluster of super faithful, rock solid Christians, the Catholic population is notably unfaithful in the area of contraception and related issues especially. Boo, those two parishes. (I could be wrong about the parishes, but it just doesn’t add up.)

Which begs the question, how can pro-fertility, pro-family communities (especially faith communities support their local pharmacies? Continue reading »

Posted by Jess at 7:57 pm Tagged with: Birth Control, DMC Pharmacy, Natural Family Planning, NFP

ThAT 8: Learn NFP from an article!

Articles, Think Again Thursdays 8 Responses »

Mar 042010

Hey, I’m all for freelance writing. You may know I’m also for NFP.

However, I’m not for learning NFP from an article, let alone an article that’s 600 words.

While I admire this writer’s courage and innovation in writing about NFP in a secular venue (we need all the promotion we can get), I’m don’t think it’s a great idea to give a drive-by instruction (especially one that’s very incomplete!) in an article about NFP. It gives people who are new to NFP the impression that *this* is NFP, it’s that simple, and you’re ready to rock with fertility awareness.

Yikes! This certainly begs another post on learning through a book vs. learning from an instructor, but as you can see from the article, her description of NFP, while well intentioned, is really incomplete at best, and misleading at worst. There’s a lot of people looking for information on NFP on the web, and if this article was among the first things they found, they may have the impression they’re ready to go, which–depending on their intention and outlook–could be quite a negative experience.

So, would you jump on over to Suite101, and (kindly, charitably) invite this well-intentioned writer to THINK AGAIN on her approach to promoting NFP? Be sure to affirm and support her pro-NFP outlook, including your thoughts on a better way to begin.

(Please Note: if you want your comment to be posted, you need to register with Suite101. I didn’t join, and my comment, which is being moderated, still hasn’t been posted.)

Posted by Jess at 8:34 am Tagged with: Natural Family Planning, NFP, Suite101.com, Think Again Thursdays

Unusual Graffiti Art

Art No Responses »

Mar 022010

The rockinest tag ever.

(Ok, I don’t think it was really a tag–probably a utility marking–but it’s way more fun to imagine a pro-NFP graffiti artist!)

Posted by Jess at 9:43 pm Tagged with: Graffiti, Natural Family Planning, NFP

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