Dear Parishioners:
Two weeks ago I received a letter from Doctor Tom Hilgers from the Pope Paul VI Institute. The Institute is a national institute for the study of human reproduction. I have had the pleasure of learning from Dr. Hilgers.
The Institute has studied human reproduction for several years. We have aided the work by giving a small part of our Christmas collection to its work. Dr. Hilgers' letter told of a significant event in the Institute's history - publication in The Journal of Reproductive Medicine, of their study on the effectiveness of Creighton Model NaProEducation Technology, an advanced natural family planning education system that has been developed at the Institute.
It is the culmination of 14 years of research involving over 1,800 married couples for a total of over 17,000 months of use of the system to avoid pregnancy. The results of this study showed that the method effectiveness to avoid pregnancy was 99.5 percent, and the use effectiveness (i.e. its use in the real world) was 96.8 percent. Both of these statistics on its method and use effectiveness to avoid pregnancy are equal to or better than anything else on the market (emphasis in the original).
Another interesting element to this article is that part of the study was done here in Houston. I imagine that we might even have some couples in STM whose data are part of the study. This is not the first time these statistics have been published, but this particular journal is a major and reputable medical journal.
NFP is an example of taking a Church teaching and developing a response which aids one in keeping that teaching. The Doctors Billings were major contributors to putting into action the Church's teaching that conjugal love is ordained for the mutual love of spouses and the procreation and education of children (Casti Connubii of Pius XI, reiterated by Pius XII, developed in Gaudium et Spes #'s 47-52, Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, the world synod of bishops in 1980, Pope John Paul's Familiaris Consortio et al.).
On another note, if there be any doubt about why I suggest a strong boycott of all that is Disney it is last week's new series, Nothing Sacred. It is as bad as expected, everything from the bad conservatives taping confessions to the Bishop ordering sermons on proving the existence of God. Once again the Church is the butt of a very bad joke.
I invite every parishioner to boycott Disney, Channel 13, the sponsors of the program and most importantly to let them know it. If we ever hope to effect change, we must be more public about these insults to our faith.
While we are not persecuted by death, there is a persecution of our hearts. Slowly I fear, it will eat away at us, and every time we allow this into our hearts we let a little bit of us die. Is this the worst it's ever been? Of course not. Our silence, however, does not help. In fact, it is usually interpreted as approval.
God bless,
Fr. Bill
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