Like many about-be-to-be-married couples, Ellen and Kurt Holloway were introduced to natural family planning through their marriage preparation class.
The topic was “brushed over,” she said.
Early in their marriage, they decided to learn more about natural family planning. “We should really be following the Church teaching about it.” Lack of information and the expense of learning about it were initial roadblocks. “As we were learning to use NFP ourselves, we decided we wanted to be a voice in the NFP community,” she said. “We fell in love with it.”
“The introductory class we went to felt so antiquated,” Holloway said. “NFP is anything but. It is based on new and established research. It is using true identifiable biomarkers.”
They became an instructor couple in the SymtoPro method.
“We are in the practicum phase,” she said. They are teaching under supervision. The method requires 40 hours of instruction time, which takes about five months to complete. The practicum period is an additional six months.
They started a ministry within their parish, Holy Spirit in Fremont.
Ellen Holloway went a step further. With the support of the Diocese of Oakland, she started the “Charting Toward Intimacy” podcast. While there are websites, Instagram and such media dedicated to NFP, she found the podcast market was an open field.
As the Marriage and Family Life group was discussing ways to bring the news to the people during the pandemic, Holloway told the group she had an idea. Six weeks later, three episodes of “Charting Toward Intimacy,” with eye-catching titles, became available, appropriately during NFP Week.
“One of the issues with NFP is it’s been sold,” she said. “The focus has been ‘we have to make people want to use it,’” she said.
But the members of younger audience — at 26, Holloway is part of that demographic — say they don’t need a sales pitch.
“We just want the truth,” Holloway said. “We want real people to tell us why we would want to use it; what what the real benefits are; what the church teachings are. Don’t just tell us it’s the perfect thing that’s going to fix our marriage. That we’re going to love it all the time. We don’t want to hear it.”
Full story at The Catholic Voice.
Good work you two. I have always thought that Humanae Vitae was the most important encyclical in my lifetime, possibly in all Church history, due to its vast ramifications for moral sexual conduct at a time when “anything goes” has been the message since the 60s “If it feels good, do it.”
Dan you’re exactly right. The back-up to a failed contraceptive leads to abortion in many cases.
From the Apostolic Age, Catholic doctrine was unambiguously clear as to the ends of marriage: procreation being the primary; the unitive aspect was always secondary. This teaching started to get muddied in the mid-20th century.
NFP is a very recent development unheard of before the sexual revolution of the 1960s. NFP can be used in accordance with God’s will — or not. If intentionally used to prevent conception for other than grave reasons (a very high bar), it’s gravely sinful.
Our Blessed Mother warned at Fatima that sins against purity was the leading cause of souls being damned to Hell.
Pray for our shepherds, that they restore the traditional teaching on the true and proper ends of marriage.
Infant mortality was also very high back then, and women were poorly educated. Maybe you don’t realize the tremendous economic burdens and struggles that young families have in today’s world. It’s not for you to judge a couple’s decisions about regulating births. And the church doesn’t help by paying poverty salaries to its own employees. I know scores of people who gave up church work because the salary wouldn’t support a family. Shameful, and violates the church’s own teachings about just remuneration.
https://www.usccb.org/committees/promotion-defense-marriage/church-teaching#tab–documents-and-statements-of-the-usccb
MRBill, I don’t think there is a Church teaching that says using NFP is gravely sinful without grave reason. Could you please give a source for that?
The number of Catholic weddings has been in sharp decline for over two decades. Many parishes see no more than six or seven weddings a year, and half of those are just convalidations of civil marriages, not first marriages of twentysomethings that would be a sign of a growing, vigorous church. Three and four decades ago, parishes routinely had two or three weddings every weekend during the summer months. Those who want a smaller church are going to get it soon.
it’s not a matter of wanting a smaller Church, it’s just recognizing the reality that it’s coming.
Oh, some people, including some who post here, definitely want a smaller church. They want all the unworthies out.