NFP Program, USCCB | February 2020 | Vol. 2, No. 1
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DIRECTOR'S DESK
Dear Diocesan NFP Coordinators,
Here we are in the beginning of the new year and Valentine’s Day (or what I like to call “Heart Day”), has already come and gone. Crumpled chocolate wrappers aside, that popular holiday provides a good time to think about the people we love—they are gifts in our lives. It is also a good time to reflect upon God’s gifts to us—especially His generous love. As Scripture proclaims,
"God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life!” (John 3:16)
Life and love—these are God’s gifts to us! God, the creator, made us. God, who is love, created each of us with a capacity to love just like Him. And, to add to these precious gifts, the Lord God offers His gift of faith though His Son in the power of His Holy Spirit. It is the Lord who invites us to faith!
Life, love, faith—these are the true gifts—let’s make 2020 a year of gratefulness for God’s gifts. Let’s thank the Lord God by accepting His invitation to faith and live the truth and beauty of His gifts!
In this spirit of gratefulness, let us also be thankful for the lives of those who have worked and continue to work to protect love and life. I find myself thinking of the many Pro-Life, Pro-NFP, Pro-Marriage and Family pioneers. People who have come before us such as the late Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, Drs. John and Evelyn Billings and Dr. Josef Rötzer. And, let us not forget those who continue to fight the good fight such as Sue and Thomas Hilgers, MD, John and Sheila Kippley, Hanna Klaus, MD, Mary Shivanandan, STD, Mercedes Wilson, Richard Fehring, PhD, RN, and Rose Fuller to name a few. These, and so many others, spent their lives in promoting conjugal love and responsible parenthood and the methods of NFP. In the upcoming issues, I will feature short portraits of NFP pioneers. In this issue, we will begin with the legacy of Bishop James T. McHugh, the founder of the USCCB’s NFP Program.
As we journey into 2020, let’s do so with a grateful heart and a strong intention to continue the work of God’s many good servants so that we can build a Culture of Life. Let us proclaim God’s love and His truths to our brothers and sisters!
May the Lord help you love just like Him!
Theresa
Theresa Notare, PhD
Assistant Director
Natural Family Planning Program
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th St., N. E.
Washington, DC 20017
202-541-3240
nfp@usccb.org
PS: Please remember to share this NFP News Feed with your NFP teachers and others who support diocesan NFP ministry. We only maintain the lists of diocesan marriage and family life directors and NFP coordinators. We need you to get the word out!
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Most Rev. James T. McHugh, STD
Many of you may be too young to know that Bishop McHugh was a Pro-Life pioneer. He was the major strategist in the construction of the modern Right to Life movement in America. In addition, he was the primary author of the bishops' diocesan Pro-Life pastoral plan as well as designed their diocesan NFP national ministry. See a brief summary of his role in setting up the
UCCB’s NFP Program.
For a thoughtful and informative reflection on the legacy of Bishop McHugh, see Richard Doerflinger's article published in the
Catholic Social Science Review (2002).
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NFP ANNOUNCEMENTS
The theme this year is
Natural Family Planning, Live the truth and beauty of God’s plan for married love!
The subtitle is:
It’s about love. It’s about life. It's about freedom. It’s about gift.
We hope to have the poster posted on the
USCCB website
by mid-March 2020. Stay tuned for more!
Diocesan NFP Program Profile Survey, 2019
In a separate email you should have received my request to complete the 2019 survey. If you have not done so, please participate in this important task by entering your data at
surveymonkey.com/r/2019-DIOCESAN-NFP-SURVEY
We hope to have the participation of 100 dioceses this year, so please participate! Remember, at the end of this year, we intend to provide you with a ten-year report after we compile the 2020 data. As we move forward, we will shorten the survey for easier use.
USCCB YourMembership
This diocesan professionals’ secure website can become a helpful resource for your ministry. The site enables you to upload documents to share, download USCCB/NFP resources and other files from your colleagues, as well as group email your peers for ideas and assistance. Why not take a look? Visit
usccb.site-ym.com
.
Remember, your diocesan email is your user name, your password will be the year that we entered your name + -nfp.
- Feeling a bit overwhelmed? Contact us at nfp@usccb.org. We can help you navigate this useful resource! Oh, and remember that we had posted the MP-4 files of the introduction to NFP science and methods e-learn on the site. The chapters are there for you to use in your educational efforts! Now do you want to go to the site?
Prayers are needed!
Please pray for the success of a by-invitation-only national NFP Leaders' Summit that will happen on July 8-10, 2020 in Maryland. We hope this summit will strengthen NFP ministry in the country and result in more effective support for you in the dioceses!
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BOMA-USA
has posted their quarterly webinars at
boma-usa.org/events.html
. Please take a look at their many helpful topics.
Note: the cost may vary if you are not a member.
WOOMB International
in collaboration with PFNGC, WOOMB Benin will co-sponsor an educational conference (March 6-8) and Billings' teacher training (March 9-11) in Cotonou, Benin (west Africa). Visit the
website
and consider attending.
https://woombconferencebenin2020.com/fr/index.php
The American Academy of Fertility
Care
™
Professionals
will hold their 2020 meeting in Clayton, MO on July 22-25. See their website
here
to learn more.
December 9-12, 2020
FIRST TIME EVER!
Diocesan Family Life Directors will join with Youth Ministers!
The National Association of Catholic Family Life Ministers, (NACFLM) will partner with the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) for their 2020 annual meeting—this is an historic moment! The conference will take place in New Orleans. NACFLM is working closely with NFCYM’s conference committee on the pre-conference and marriage/family-themed breakout sessions during the conference. Although it is still very early, do visit NACFLM’s website to check on developments,
nacflm.org
.
Please send us information about your NFP events. We will feature them in this newsletter and
post them here
to share on the USCCB website!
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Did you know that the USCCB has many resources that teach about the unique nature of marriage? Podcasts, free videos, blogs, and more can be found at
Marriage Unique for a Reason
!
While we are thinking about
Humanae vitae
, Janet Smith published another useful resource called
Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right
. That would make another meaningful gift for someone special!
Need a great web resource to refer your NFP couples to? Take a look at
Off the Charts
. Jenny Uebbing (from the Archdiocese of Denver) founded this amazing website to provide on-going pastoral help to NFP users. We joined just to be a part of this faithful, warm, intelligent, and extremely practical virtual community. A subscription fee is charged for full access to the community. More information? Contact
offthecharts@gmail.com
.
Marquette Model
users can find support and advice at the official
MM Facebook page
.
Free
Made For More
Event!
Find out about the multi-media presentation
Made For More
!
You can host Christopher West and Mike Mangione as they creatively weave together dynamic presentations with live music, movie clips, YouTube videos, and sacred art for an evening of beauty and reflection on the meaning of life, love, and human destiny. A
Made for More
event is free for the host.
Learn more at
tobinstitute.org/live-events
.
FACTS
provides webinars, a speakers list, and much more on the science and methodology of all the NFP methods. Visit the FACTS website at
factsaboutfertility.org
.
IIRRM
The International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine (IRRM) provides webinars and other important resources for their members. In fact, they archive files of previous webinars posted on their website. We just listened to a useful presentation on NFP Apps on Feb. 12
th
. Consider joining and making this resource available for your NFP teachers. Check it out at
iirrm.org.
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NOTE: If you have been looking for
Current Medical Research on the USCCB website, past issues up to 2017 are posted
here. We are in the process of finding a new editor and do not have 2018 or 2019 issues. Thank you for your patience!
_________________
Abortion of
wanted
Pregnancies
The Catholic University of America’s Fr. Paul Sullins, PhD, sent in a link to his article published in the Swiss medical journal
Medicina
with this comment:
“Almost all mainstream Western social science and medical associations assure us that ‘women who terminate an unwanted pregnancy by abortion experience no more mental health problems than women who deliver such a pregnancy’ (British Royal College of Surgeons, adapted). These statements understate mental health problems following abortion by glossing over a well-documented but seldom acknowledged fact: a significant minority of abortions—about one in seven in the USA—are of pregnancies that the mother reports were
wanted
, not unwanted. Such abortions most often occur because, while the mother wanted the child, others involved such as her partner or parents did not. Not surprisingly, these wanted pregnancy abortions are more distressing to the woman, on average, than those of unwanted child abortions.”
Fr. Sullins’ study is the first study ever done of this class of abortions. The study is available for free thanks to the generous support of the
Ruth Institute
and other donors.
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The Menstrual Cycle as a Marker of Health: A Research Review
FAC TS website provides a review of research about the need for more education in the medical community on the characteristics of the menstrual cycle. As the article notes, “one example is the conventional wisdom that rigidly states a woman’s median cycle length is 28 days, with a luteal phase length of 14 days, leaving out common variations that could have significant implications in the management of women’s health conditions.” See
factsaboutfertility.org/the-menstrual-cycle-as-a-marker-of-health-a-research-review
.
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Surprise? ART continues to prove itself risky
This study
of children born in Denmark shows an increased risk for childhood cancer among those born after the use of frozen embryo transfer compared with children born to fertile women.
More doubts about the Pil
l
Read a very
challenging article
about the
possibility
that use of hormonal contraception (e.g., the Pill), can cause autism in the children whose mothers had used hormones. This should be investigated in more depth!
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Interesting but troubling popular article on NFP
In the words of one NFP leader, this
“brutal but interesting” article
is pro-natural methods from the secular left. On the positive side, it shows potential for moving NFP into the public square. At the same time, it also reveals that NFP needs to be presented within the context of God’s gifts of the person, marriage, and the child. The author more than misses that point!
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Social Media and NFP
Are you on social media—how about
professionally
? How well do NFPers use social media? Here is an
interesting article
that explores the good and bad of social media.
With multitudes of young adults using social media, NFP, and Catholic teaching which supports its use in marriage, should be front and center! Take the NFP social media challenge below!
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Do you know about TikTok?
Currently, TikTok is the most downloaded app worldwide with 500 million users. 41% are between 16 and 24. That said, children 12 and under also use this app to create and access content. As expected, not all TikTok content is good—some is quite bad. One NFP mom alerted us to
TikTok videos promoting contraception
to children. Yet another reason to monitor children on social media and a compelling reason to
jump in
and
proclaim God’s truth about the person, marriage, sex, and family!
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Set up a social media account and proclaim God’s truth about love, chastity, marriage, sex, and life!
Make two engaging videos for youth and young adults promoting Church teaching on chastity and on NFP. Post them on TikTok and let us know.
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A heartful thank you for your efforts to promote God's gifts of
marriage, love and life!
May the Lord God bless you and your families and help you do His will!
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