Natural Family Planning International

My husband worked hard to spread our NFP apostolate.  Some of the biggest obstacles were right within the diocesan structure.

“Rejections”
That fall [1995] the couple invited me to meet with the bishop, so up to Benton Harbor I went, and then to the chancery office in Kalamazoo. Around the table were the bishop, the priest, the couple, and myself. When I could see that all was lost, I thought I might as well go for broke. So I said to the bishop something like this: “Your Excellency, when your NFP priest and I talked down in Cincinnati, he spoke as if he did not believe the teaching of Humanae Vitae, and I wonder about the feasibility of having a non-believer as head of your NFP program.” Then I turned to the priest and said, “Father, if I have in any way misinterpreted your remarks, please correct me here and now.” There was a very long silence. Everyone in the room knew I had not misinterpreted the NFP director. Finally, the bishop rather awkwardly cleared his throat and said something to this effect: “Mr. Kippley, you have made some serious statements. Father and I will have to discuss this matter.” Some days later the NFP priest wrote me. A dissenter would remain in charge of the diocesan NFP program.

Another early rejection was based on our advocacy of ecological breastfeeding. We recruited an enthusiastic couple in Columbus, Ohio and early in their teacher training they contacted the diocesan NFP-related person. He was opposed to our advocacy of ecological breastfeeding and told them that if they wanted any cooperation from his office they would have to become certified in his diocesan program. Wanting to teach and not engage in fruitless fights, they went with his program.
(Excerpts from Battle-Scarred, pages 122-123) Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive by John F. Kippley is available at a 50% discount at lulu.com during NFP Week.

The college in Salina had a huge financial crisis, and the half-dozen new teachers hired in 1969 were given pink slips in the fall of 1970.  From there we went to a parish in St. Paul, Minnesota and started an NFP apostolate.

Prem and Religious Education
Dr. Konald A. Prem always stayed after class to help couples with the interpretation of their charts, but he did not use standardized Phase 3 rules as we do today. With his wide experience, he would simply tell the couples if they were now in pre-ovulation infertility, or the fertile time, or when Phase 3, the time of post-ovulation infertility, had begun. He would also tell them with great confidence that if he was wrong about a Phase 3 interpretation, he would deliver the baby free of charge. He also told them that no one had ever taken him up on that offer. We looked over his shoulder and not infrequently would ask him how he arrived at his interpretations. By listening to his explanations, we gradually developed the several rules that we still use today. The occasion of one of his interpretations still stays with me. At the end of the meeting, a couple who had been unable to get to the class on time dashed into the room. They wanted an interpretation, and when Dr. Prem told them they were in Phase 3, the wife raised the chart and cried out for all to hear, “Fun city tonight!” while her husband’s face turned beet-red.

Adult education was part of my job, but parish adult education by now was, for the most part, dead. It was now a half dozen years since the end of Vatican II. The theological left wing had been doing most of the adult education that was supposed to play a big part in renewing and reinvigorating the Church. Their courses and lectures, however, essentially
said in one way or another that Catholics really don’t need to heed the actual teaching of the Church. Oh, it might be good material for discussion, but it was not something to which the believing Catholic was obliged to conform his or her conscience. The actual documents of Vatican II were consigned to the dustbin of history, while the so-called liberals promoted what they called the “spirit of Vatican II.” I call them “so-called” liberals because the chief talking point of people who want to be known as liberals is the idea of letting all ideas be heard. What we soon found out was that the so-called liberals were more dogmatic than the dogmas of the Church in their heterodox refusal to let the actual teachings of the Church get a fair hearing.
(Excerpts from Battle-Scarred, pages 66-67)  Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive by John F. Kippley is available at a 50% discount at lulu.com during NFP Week.

After our Canadian experience, John taught theology at a college in Salina, Kansas.

The Kansas Abortion Law
During the academic year of 1969-1970, we experienced three things of special interest. First, in 1969 the State of Kansas passed legislation that allowed a mother to kill her unborn child for any reason whatsoever up to the time of delivery. Most people are surprised to learn that Kansas had such a liberal abortion law prior to the Roe vs. Wade decision of January 22, 1973…. Not long after abortion was legalized, one of the hospitals in Salina offered to perform them. That called for a protest, and some of the religious sisters at Marymount agreed. They helped me paint a few picket signs, but
they would not join me in picketing the hospital because they feared such a public confrontation would have adverse consequences for the college. So I went there by myself with a couple of signs and started to picket. Soon I was joined by a woman who identified herself as a Jehovah’s Witness. I didn’t keep a diary at the time, and I have forgotten how often we picketed, but I do remember that not one other person joined us.

Kansas Labor Law
In the spring of 1970, I got involved in a second event of special interest. I read in the paper that the president of the Salina firefighters union had been suspended by the city safety director who felt that the union president had used inappropriate language. Suspended? And most likely without pay?… At the time I was teaching a course on Catholic social-justice doctrine, so one spring afternoon I went to the City Council meeting to give them a very short course on social justice. A photographer caught me in a classic prophetic pose with my forefinger making an emphatic point and my mouth
wide open. One of my students, however, found it very helpful. He said that he had been having some faith-related problems, but seeing that short presentation of Catholic teaching made him extremely proud to be a Catholic and had really increased his faith.

I had touched a sore point, and the controversy lingered.  I remember that a friend at the college told me repeatedly that I couldn’t accomplish any good and that I was only hurting myself by continuing to support the firefighters.  He was, of course, correct.  In my first meeting with Marymount’s new president, he told me that at his first meeting with some of the prominent city fathers whose cooperation he needed in fund raising, he was asked, “When are you going to get rid of the ‘perfesser’?”

Salina and Humanae Vitae
The third memorable event of our stay in Salina occurred in the spring of 1970… We decided to have a meeting with other likeminded couples. Sheila knew some through her breastfeeding contacts, but we wanted a few more. We advertised in the parish bulletins of Salina and some surrounding towns, and two couples and three breastfeeding mothers
showed up. We were excited to learn that some of them knew more about NFP and the budding NFP movement than we did. We said, “This is great. Can we work together to form an organized effort to spread the good word?” Utter silence. It turned out that our fellow NFP users were “closet NFPers.” The social pressure was so strong against Humanae Vitae that they didn’t want to be known as believers—even in their own parishes.
(Excerpts from Battle-Scarred, pages 60-63)  Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive by John F. Kippley is available at a 50% discount at lulu.com during NFP Week.