Should priests talk about NFP/ABC in their homilies a bit more?

[whatevergirl]

The homily is probably not the best time for priest to discuss NFP or ABC. Priests do not have the same freedom to bring up whatever topic they want in the homily the way that evangelical ministers do in their sermon. Homilies are supposed to address the Gospel reading for that day. From New Advent:

*At present there are four recognized ways of treating the homily, but not all to be equally commended.

The first method consists in treating separately each sentence of the Gospel. This was the uniform method of St. Anselm, as we gather from the sixteen sermons that have come down to us. It is not to be recommended, for it gives, at best, but a fragmentary and scattered treatment.

The second method is quite the opposite; it focuses the entire content of the Gospel in a single idea. It is usually called the “higher homily”, and differs from the formal or set sermon only in the absence of introduction and peroration. It is clear that only certain Gospels can be treated in this way.

The third kind selects some virtue or vice arising out of the Gospel, and treats one or the other to the exclusion of all else. This kind of homily is commonly called a “prone”.
The fourth kind is that which first paraphrases and explains the entire Gospel, and then makes an application of it. This, the method of St. Chrysostom, seems, except where the “higher homily” applies, to be the best, because it can guard against the besetting defect of the homily, namely, a tendency to lack of unity and continuity.*

If you want priests to instruct more on NFP it would probably best be done at an evening lecture.

True, I also stated that they could make it in the form of a special announcement…that they put together literature for parishioners to take home…something in the bulletin. Every week, in our bulletin there is a paragraph about the ‘rules’ of Lent fasting, and abstinence…there is no reason to not put something new in each week, month whatever…about NFP, ABC, the Church teaching on abortion, the whys of it all…it would be most helpful…even if it changes the heart of just a few, those few will then help others, and so on.

We’re all part of the Church, but we need to hear these truths from our leaders more.

 

[whatevergirl]

:sad_yes::nope:

Oh whatevergirl you misunderstood! I meant the priest in their homilies! I am so sorry if you thought that was to you! :bigyikes:

I agree with you I think we need more priest willing to talk about NFP, I am not making my points very well this morning.

I think I need more sleep,

I’m so sorry–I think I need more, too. No, I know I do. I was on here late last night. God bless you.

 

[buffalo]

The homily is probably not the best time for priest to discuss NFP or ABC. Priests do not have the same freedom to bring up whatever topic they want in the homily the way that evangelical ministers do in their sermon. Homilies are supposed to address the Gospel reading for that day. From New Advent:

*At present there are four recognized ways of treating the homily, but not all to be equally commended.

The first method consists in treating separately each sentence of the Gospel. This was the uniform method of St. Anselm, as we gather from the sixteen sermons that have come down to us. It is not to be recommended, for it gives, at best, but a fragmentary and scattered treatment.

The second method is quite the opposite; it focuses the entire content of the Gospel in a single idea. It is usually called the “higher homily”, and differs from the formal or set sermon only in the absence of introduction and peroration. It is clear that only certain Gospels can be treated in this way.

The third kind selects some virtue or vice arising out of the Gospel, and treats one or the other to the exclusion of all else. This kind of homily is commonly called a “prone”.
The fourth kind is that which first paraphrases and explains the entire Gospel, and then makes an application of it. This, the method of St. Chrysostom, seems, except where the “higher homily” applies, to be the best, because it can guard against the besetting defect of the homily, namely, a tendency to lack of unity and continuity.*

If you want priests to instruct more on NFP it would probably best be done at an evening lecture.

The new instructions from Rome are to preach in both ways often citing the Catechism.

 

[choose_to_love]

Whatever and Baylee,

I can tell you that we gave an information talk about NFP a couple years ago during NFP awareness week, right before the end of Mass. Less than five minutes total, and as far as describing the mechanics, only saying that one can read various physical signs to determine when a woman is fertile. The associate pastor who was in charge setting up the talk got a nasty letter from one lady, along the lines of “I don’t come to Mass to hear about sex! My children are with me!” Her kids were identified in the letter as teens, mind you. So baylee, you may be on the right track as far as one reason for the lack of effective homilies.

katie1723,

We frequently - - once every quarter or so - - advertise in the bulletin an NFP information night to be held at the parish hall. No one signs up.

I agree that these topics need to be addressed forthrightly and frequently in homilies. Also agree whateverg, that the hard stuff should be taught - - people want to be challenged.

 

[mrs_miggins]

Hi, I’m new on here so apologies for asking something that may have already been pointed out (I quickly scanned the posts and everyone seemed to know what was being talked about so now I really feel like a bit of a thicky ) but what is ABC ?

Also I was baptized catholic when I was 18 but for many reasons have gone away from the church for a few years and am now hoping to return but in the meantime my husband (not a catholic) had a vasectomy. Sorry if this is slightly of topic but the OP mentioned it in one of her first posts so wonder if someone could clarify if this will be a problem to my coming back to the church. It was done for medical reasons - having my second child almost killed me and him.

Thanks and God bless.

 

[catholic79]

Hi, I’m new on here so apologies for asking something that may have already been pointed out (I quickly scanned the posts and everyone seemed to know what was being talked about so now I really feel like a bit of a thicky ) but what is ABC ?

Also I was baptized catholic when I was 18 but for many reasons have gone away from the church for a few years and am now hoping to return but in the meantime my husband (not a catholic) had a vasectomy. Sorry if this is slightly of topic but the OP mentioned it in one of her first posts so wonder if someone could clarify if this will be a problem to my coming back to the church. It was done for medical reasons - having my second child almost killed me and him.

Thanks and God bless.

Artificial Birth Control

 

[whatevergirl]

Oh, I definitely think discretion needs to be followed…but, that’s the problem, many Catholics think (I will say many) think that their faith somehow should be about everything BUT sex. That was the trap I fell into a long time ago. I was chaste before meeting my husband…but, we were not following Church doctrine for a long time during our marriage, on sexuality.

So, again…a priest can use creative ways to get the message out to just adults. Where there is a will, there is a way. Our Pope makes no qualms or excuses when he puts together encyclicals dealing with some tough issues…

Our parish priests are extensions of Christ…extensions of our Pope, the Vicar of Christ on earth. Our priests should be repeating what our Pope says, either in writings, bulletins, homilies, classes…something.

I have a good Catholic friend…and one day we were talking about the Pope, and I can’t remember the exact subject, but it dealt with abortion…and she said…‘oh, there goes the Pope again.’ I said…what do you mean, ‘there goes the Pope again.’ She went on to explain how he makes things too difficult for the ‘average everyday Catholic’ to follow.
I
said, so the Pope should what, tell people to vote for a proabortion candidate because…it’s ‘easier?’ She didn’t like where things were heading…and said that she doesn’t believe the Pope is the ‘end all be all.’
I said, if you are a faithful Catholic, you believe that He is the Vicar of Christ on earth…do you believe that? She said yes. But, that he not the end all be all.

Ugh–this is why we need our local leadership…to get more involved with echoing our Pope on many tougher topics.

 

[whatevergirl]

Hi, I’m new on here so apologies for asking something that may have already been pointed out (I quickly scanned the posts and everyone seemed to know what was being talked about so now I really feel like a bit of a thicky ) but what is ABC ?

Also I was baptized catholic when I was 18 but for many reasons have gone away from the church for a few years and am now hoping to return but in the meantime my husband (not a catholic) had a vasectomy. Sorry if this is slightly of topic but the OP mentioned it in one of her first posts so wonder if someone could clarify if this will be a problem to my coming back to the church. It was done for medical reasons - having my second child almost killed me and him.

Thanks and God bless.

Welcome back to the Church! Great!
You and your husband should make an appt to talk to your parish priest…about your personal situation. I think that might help you both considerably.

 

[mrs_miggins]

Thanks to those that answered - really do feel a bit silly now should have worked that out for myself !

As for the going to the priest, this is the reason I haven’t returned yet - my husband will not do that. He is a good man and ‘seeking’ but not anywhere near talking to a stranger about something that personal. But I will try to talk to someone - I know our diocese has ‘advice lines’ so maybe they are a good first point of call.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[PaulinVA]

The biggest misconception that needs to be addressed is that ultimately it’s your own personal conscience that decides if ABC is allowable for you.

During the small timeframe in the sixties between the submission of the report of the commission studying ABC and the Pope’s rejection of it’s recommendation to allow ABC, there was no clear Church direction. So, it was permissible, at that time only, to use one’s conscience to decide what you would do.

After the Pope declared that ABC was still not allowed, the “conscience clause” ended. It can not be used to override the Church’s teaching that all use of ABC is wrong. However, a generation of priests and laity latched on to the “conscience clause” and taught it to the next generation.

That is were the education needs to begin. There is no “conscience clause” - there is only the Church teaching.

 

[whatevergirl]

The biggest misconception that needs to be addressed is that ultimately it’s your own personal conscience that decides if ABC is allowable for you.

During the small timeframe in the sixties between the submission of the report of the commission studying ABC and the Pope’s rejection of it’s recommendation to allow ABC, there was no clear Church direction. So, it was permissible, at that time only, to use one’s conscience to decide what you would do.

After the Pope declared that ABC was still not allowed, the “conscience clause” ended. It can not be used to override the Church’s teaching that all use of ABC is wrong. However, a generation of priests and laity latched on to the “conscience clause” and taught it to the next generation.

That is were the education needs to begin. There is no “conscience clause” - there is only the Church teaching.

See this? I didn’t even know there was a conscience clause…I was born in 68. So, yes this could be a humble beginning!

Bottom line, priests need to be echoing our Pope. Getting creative with the delivery, but echoing our Pope.

 

[ironband]

I used to fall into the “poorly catechized” category myself, and I even went through RCIA. I knew that the church taught that ABC was wrong, but didn’t understand why, and so I ignored that bit of the cafeteria. It wasn’t until after our second child was born and my wife started suggesting that I should get a vascectomy that things changed for me. I had an appointment and everything, but something really didn’t feel right about it. After some prayer, I started really delving into the Church’s teaching and discovered the beauty that I had missed before. My wife and I talked, and I canceled the appointment. We purchased a Ladycomp fertility computer and began practicing NFP.

Thanks be to God, we had our third child this past January! It pains me to know how close I came to preventing his being, and how many other gifts I potentially turned away unknowingly by my own lack of understanding.

I agree that more needs to be done in our parishes to spread the good news about Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. But let’s face it, we can’t put it all on the priests. A ten minute homily is just not enough to unpack the deep teachings that are there, and as has been pointed out, a homily might not be the best place to do that. Even a “guest speaker” talking for 5-10 minutes before the end of mass can’t really get into the depth of teaching that is required, but it might be enough to pique interest in an evening talk or retreat or something, and make people aware that there is “more to know” about the subject.

I am trying to do my part - I’ve been studying TOB from a number of different angles (reading the actual lectures translated on EWTN’s web site, as well as books by Christopher West, Jason and Crystalina Evert, etc.) for a while, and I’ve begun incorporating it to our youth ministry program (I’m the part time youth minister at our parish) using the Thoeology of the Body for Teens curriculum.

It’s not much (20 high school students attending regularly), but its a start.

 

[AliciaCL]

I, for one, really don’t want to hear about NFP during Mass, especially with children present.

On the other hand, I’d like to hear a better articulation for no-birth-control-of-any-kind-ever than Humanae Vitae itself states. The encyclical itself is brief and leaves tons of questions unanswered, particularly the basic idea that prevention of fertilization itself, inside a marriage is immoral. Why? It doesn’t really say why. And in my tons of research, I have yet to find an articulated reason other than: because the chruch says so. Lately, I’m hearing bc pills weaken the uterine wall and probably “cause” miscarriages. I find no clinical support for that and it was never offered as an explanation to my knowledge, when the encyclical first came out. bc pills are also used to regulate women with problems not just contraception. Millions believe that limiting the number of children due to economic and the parents ability to handle more children is fine but the counter argument is that somehow they’re wallowing in selfishess. I don’t see that and I’m one of 8 kids and while I wouldn’t argue that some siblings shouldn’t exist, there’s lots in attention and learning I would have had that I don’t because we were such a handful. Parents didn’t have enough time for each of us no matter how committed they were to the church.

Articles in the church bulletin, guest speakers, etc. might be good to use in educating.

 

[SourGrape]

I feel blessed to have attended parishes where usually “off limit” topics such as: abortion, contraception, etc. were and are addressed periodically in homilies. In my short experience of being a practicing Catholic (I received the Easter Sacraments in 2005), I have found that at a religious/regular parish; i.e.: run by a religious order like the Francisicans, Carmelites, Augustinians, etc., these topics are discussed more frequently in the homilies or bulletins than at a secular parish, where the topic is, many times, never discussed. Honestly, I have found that most secular parishes focus on feel good issues and topics that they believe most parishoners’ “itchy ears,” want to hear.

I’m just speaking from personal experience. Last Sunday, while at a Latin Mass given by a Franciscan order, the entire homily addressed these very issues–the Culture of Death.

I really believe it depends where you go to Mass.

 

[tapiocapudding]

I’ve been to every RCIA class that my parish has held for us. We received excellent instruction on the importance of confession. We are constantly reminded to pray for the souls of the unborn. There is no question that abortions are wrong. We’ve learned a great many important things in great detail. But not once has anyone told us that birth control is wrong. We even talked about IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies. One priest made mention in a lecture on marriage of how hormonal birth control is bad for the environment and suggested NFP as an excellent alternative. But we were not told that in fact, Catholics are not allowed to use any birth control, hormonal or barrier method. It just seemed like it was his personal opinion being presented and that it was a choice you could make, much like choosing between paper bags and plastic at the grocery store. If it weren’t for CAF I wouldn’t have any reason to think that birth control is immoral.

 

[Em_in_FL]

I, for one, really don’t want to hear about NFP during Mass, especially with children present.

On the other hand, I’d like to hear a better articulation for no-birth-control-of-any-kind-ever than Humanae Vitae itself states. The encyclical itself is brief and leaves tons of questions unanswered, particularly the basic idea that prevention of fertilization itself, inside a marriage is immoral. Why? It doesn’t really say why. And in my tons of research, I have yet to find an articulated reason other than: because the chruch says so. Lately, I’m hearing bc pills weaken the uterine wall and probably “cause” miscarriages. I find no clinical support for that and it was never offered as an explanation to my knowledge, when the encyclical first came out. bc pills are also used to regulate women with problems not just contraception. Millions believe that limiting the number of children due to economic and the parents ability to handle more children is fine but the counter argument is that somehow they’re wallowing in selfishess. I don’t see that and I’m one of 8 kids and while I wouldn’t argue that some siblings shouldn’t exist, there’s lots in attention and learning I would have had that I don’t because we were such a handful. Parents didn’t have enough time for each of us no matter how committed they were to the church.

Articles in the church bulletin, guest speakers, etc. might be good to use in educating.

I’ll pull out your questions:

particularly the basic idea that prevention of fertilization itself, inside a marriage is immoral. Why?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church goes into great detail on the subject here…

2363
The spouses’ union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life. These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering the couple’s spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the future of the family.

The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.

Preventing fertilization (using artificial birth control) does not allow the marital act to achieve that “twofold end of marriage”. Please go read that entire page on the link to the Catechism… it may be helpful.

Lately, I’m hearing bc pills weaken the uterine wall and probably “cause” miscarriages. I find no clinical support for that and it was never offered as an explanation to my knowledge,

Read the package insert for any Birth Control Pill. You’ll see that one way it works is by “altering the endometrium” which is the same as allow a fertilized egg to be aborted.
Here’s an example… The link to the physician’s prescribing info for a popular version of the pill… it says:

CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY
Mode of action
Combination oral contraceptives act by suppression of gonadotropins. Although the
primary mechanism of this action is inhibition of ovulation, other alterations include
changes in the cervical mucus (which increase the difficulty of sperm entry into the
uterus) and changes in the endometrium (which reduce the likelihood of implantation).

 

[choose_to_love]

@Alicia

“I don’t really want to hear about NFP during Mass”

Why? You didn’t really say.

Have you read any theology of the body material? Donum Vitae? Castii Connubi? I think there’s even some relevant stuff in Evangelium Vitae.

How about Janet Smith’s “Contraception -Why Not” CD or tape? I think it’s available free or for nominal cost from One More Soul.

 

[KCT]

I haven’t read all the replies . . . is it possible that many priests today, depending on their ages, have not been taught well? They can’t preach on what they have not been taught.

 

[whatevergirl]

I haven’t read all the replies . . . is it possible that many priests today, depending on their ages, have not been taught well? They can’t preach on what they have not been taught.

I hadn’t thought of that, but really…could be.

 

[PaulinVA]

I haven’t read all the replies . . . is it possible that many priests today, depending on their ages, have not been taught well? They can’t preach on what they have not been taught.

I fear it’s closer to they won’t preach on what they don’t believe.