Natural Family Planning International

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.

Disemployment
Based on his experience in the data-processing and office-system industry, John was hired by the Provincial Department of Health.  After three weeks, he was let go due to the influence of our pastor who wanted John out of town.

So what do you do when you’ve been fired without cause from your church job and had your state job dissolved?…. For some time, Fr. Mooney continued to deny he had anything to do with it, but eventually he admitted to the priests that he had been involved, and still later his attorney would tell a lawyer helping me that a parishioner in the Provincial Cabinet had blackballed me.

Maclean’s Reports
“It sounds admirably progressive when church leaders talk encouragingly about ‘participatory democracy’ at the parish level, as the Vatican II Encyclical did, for instance. Who, then, could have foreseen that a Roman Catholic lay worker who tried to put this concept into practice in Saskatchewan would not only lose one job with the parish and a second job with the government but would also become the target of an attempt to run him out of the province?…..”  (“Why do they want to drive John Kippley out of Saskatchewan?” by Linda Mitchell, page 1, full article, December 1968, Maclean’s, a national Canadian magazine)

In short, I think that God gave me the covenant insight when I was teaching the Faith in Santa Clara. I think He gave me the time to author a book around that basic concept to support the teaching of Humanae Vitae at a time when the encyclical needed support, even from theological nobodies. I know that God was watching over us in a special way during our stay in Regina. With the benefit of years of hindsight, I now like to think that my unemployment was providential. While I certainly did not feel that way at the time, I have thanked the Lord for it many times in later years.
(Excerpt from Battle-Scarred, page 41, 43-44, 57)  Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive by John F. Kippley is available at a 50% discount at lulu.com during NFP Week.

Introduction:  The week of July 21-27, 2013 celebrates the 45th anniversary of Humanae Vitae issued by Pope Paul VI on July 25, 1968.  A recent letter to the editor in our local Cincinnati tabloid criticized the bishops for suppressing dissent.  My husband’s letter showing the error of that opinion was, of course, not published.  The reality is that the dissent movement suppressed those who taught orthodoxy.  What follows is our personal experience with that.  Subsequent blogs this week reflect our experiences, most of which are related to the effort to support Humanae Vitae intellectually and to provide practical help to live it.

In the academic year 1967-1968, my husband became known for teaching parish adult education courses that were thoroughly orthodox, including the received teaching against contraception. One morning about the start of my ninth month of a pregnancy, he was summarily fired, no reasons ever given, no defense possible.  A person who had been an insider on the decision a year previous to hire John gave us her opinion: The pastor had hoped that this lay theologian would be promoting the acceptance of contraception, something the pastor didn’t dare to do publicly because he had ambitions to be a bishop some day.  If that is correct, John became the first victim of the dissent movement—even before the encyclical was officially published.

John started a job search which was interesting in many ways and the following excerpt is his experience with a parish in the Greater Minneapolis area.  ( I will be blogging daily during NFP Week taking excerpts from his memoirs, Battle-Scarred.)

The Job Search
I left on June 15th for two meetings. On the 17th I met with the Executive Board and passed with flying colors. On the 18th I met with the whole Board with the same result…..However, I was asked to attend a weekend meeting in early July to meet the other new staff members and get a better feel for the parish. I flew back to Minneapolis on July 4 for an unforgettable experience.

At our first “T-group” session, one of the young men began to tell a sad story about himself and he actually started crying. This was totally strange to me…. Then we had an evaluation of that performance, and the young man with the sad story criticized me very directly for not coming to his aid. This was touchy-feely at its max, my first experience with sensitivity training. I never knew whether the young man was genuine or was playing a part in a prearranged act… We were not given the opportunity to attend one of the regular parish Sunday morning Masses, so I thought we would be having Mass in the afternoon. Not at all. As the pastor was summarizing the weekend on Sunday afternoon, I asked him when we were going to have Mass. “Oh,” he replied, “this whole weekend has been one big Eucharist.”
(Excerpt from Battle-Scarred, pages 21-22)  Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive by John F. Kippley is available at a 50% discount at lulu.com during NFP week.
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