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?
The USCCB’s site has some resources like homily helps, prayers of the faithful, prayers, couples’ witnesses (to be published in your local paper the week of/ before), and this awesome poster above (en espanol, tambien).
What are you doing in your area? Here are some ideas:
(Update 6/12: The Contraception Why Not DVD link wasn’t working, so I updated it.)
- Ask your DRE/ pastor/ parish secretary to order 1-3 of the above poster for your bulletin boards, and put up in the next two weeks.
- Give your pastor or deacon
A Preachable Message: The Dynamics of Natural Family Planning
or “Proclaiming Theology of the Body,” or “Reaching the Cafeteria Catholic” and encourage him that THIS IS A MESSAGE PEOPLE WANT TO HEAR.
- Have a Parish Novena of Sts. Joachim & Ann.
- Host Eucharistic Adoration for a Humanae Vitae Culture, using a litany of the Holy Family, and readings from a John Paul II (Familiaris Consortio or Theology of the Body would be great). Make sure confession is available.
- Have a local speaker (call your diocese’s evangelization or family life office) give a talk at your parish. Make sure it’s not a really stilted, expected title like “All About NFP.” People have stereotypes and misconceptions (no pun intended) about NFP, and they need to be broken. A local speaker in my diocese has a talk titled, “Family Planning: Think Outside the Pill,” that addresses the myths of contraception (safe, family friendly, reduces abortion), and contrasts it with the holistic, marriage building, spiritually sound NFP. Other title ideas: “NFP: It’s Not Your Mother’s Rhythm,” “Making Good Marriages Great,” “What Couples Need to Know About Birth Control” (and have a doctor give a rundown of contraceptive myths and failures).
- Have a CD/ DVD listening Session of a great speaker, and have a discussion group (make sure you have a well-formed, mature facilitator): Vicki Thorn’s “The Biochemistry of Sex” (Call (414) 483-4141 to order), and Janet Smith’s “Contraception: Why Not,”
- For Youth Directors: Don’t leave Teens Out! They need to know the honest truth about love, contraception (especially since half of them are on it for their acne), and the basics (not too much) of NFP: Patty Schneier’s “True Love: How Will I Know?” for Teens, Jason Evert’s “Romance Without Regret” for Teens.
- Have a Humanae Vitae Study Group: ENDOW has an amazing study workbook, but requires a trained facilitator. The ENDOW Study I might recommend for those who are new to catechesis on this subject, or may not “agree with Church teaching.” Catholic Scripture Study has a resource for a Humanae Vitae here. Priests for Life also has one here. There’s another one by Marian Catechists, but I can’t find the link.
- If you’ve got a little bit of money in your parish evangelization budget (I know money’s tight, but this will change lives), I guarantee that you won’t regret sending each one of your families Patty Schneier’s “Prove It, God!…And He Did” testimony by Patty Schneier. The diocese of Bismark, in a courageous and unprecedented NFP evangelization effort, sent a CD of Patty’s story to EVERY FAMILY IN THEIR ENTIRE DIOCESE, and the results were astounding. The Diocese received over 60 formal (and how many informal?) letters of support and gratitude, and the increase of interest in NFP and NFP-only medical care was so profound, that they had to “import” an NFP-only doctor just to help meet the need! WHAT? This is amazing. If they can find the money in North Dakota, you can too. Read more about this here.
Do you have any other ideas?
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