Natural Family Planning International

Ironic Germany: Good Biology but Bad Theology

Our friend’s comments in last week’s blog are even more relevant today than two years ago.  Not only has Amoris Laetitia fulfilled my fears, but Cardinal Kasper has been anointed as the official interpreter of that document.

At the time of Humanae Vitae in 1968, the German bishops became internationally notorious for their lack of support for it.  Thus, most Catholic couples have been living the same contraceptive lifestyles as the completely irreligious and are suffering the same consequences of marital unhappiness, divorce, and remarriage.

The result is not only a tragedy for the Church in terms of the practice of the Faith but also in terms of Church economics.  When non-practicing Catholics no longer check off “Catholic” for the portion of their taxes usually designated for support of their Church, the Church suffers financially.  And those big, empty churches still have to be maintained until they are sold.

There is a special irony in the non-support of Humanae Vitae in Germany—the heartland of research for natural family planning.  In 1930, a German medical journal published an article that laid the foundation for Calendar Rhythm.  In 1934, a German Catholic priest invented the very accurate calendar-temperature method by adding the temperature sign to the calendar calculations.  In 1951, Dr. Jozef Roetzer began to teach a temperature-based method in Austria, and he soon added the mucus observations; by 1965 his Sympto-Thermal work was well recognized in Austria and Germany. In 1967 a German medical journal published an article by Dr. G. K. Doering that showed a 97% effectiveness for the calendar-temperature method and a 99% effectiveness for the temperature-only method.  All of this was taking place while influential German theologians looked for ways to justify unnatural methods of birth control and then persuaded their bishops to ignore Humanae Vitae. 

The liberal theologians congratulate themselves, the people suffer the consequences, and so does the larger Church.

Pope Francis can find better models than the Church in Germany.  I suggest that he look at a place such as the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska which has been famous or infamous for its support of Humanae Vitae. And I am sure there must be a few others, too.

John F. Kippley
Please pray for the Church in Germany and everywhere and come back next week.

Germany: Not a Role Model for the Rest of the Church

With permission, we are posting a friend’s comments on the state of the Church in Germany as she experienced it two years ago.

9/28/2014:  “John, I just got back from three awful weeks in Germany!   They say only 10% of European Catholics go to Sunday Mass.  Is it that many?  You have to drive many miles and go to different churches every day…and you still can’t get to Mass every day!  And there are just a handful of elderly priests moving around between those churches.  I have two granddaughters there, one a very intelligent good student, almost 14 years old, in an academically good Catholic high school…who didn’t know she was going to a Catholic school!  She had never heard of Communism…or of purgatory!  The state takes high taxes…60% of your income…and then supports your choice of church with it.  The parishes only give a year of instructions before First Communion, and another year before Confirmation.  The rest of your “catechism” you get from public school!  In the public school, the same teacher teaches religion to the Catholic students out of one book, and to the Evangelical students out of another.  My almost 12 year old granddaughter goes to public school, gets her religious education from her Evangelical teacher…who is living with her boyfriend!  And the poor little girl is very lacking in her understanding. I was tending to date all of Germany’s Catholic Church problems back to when they rejected Humanae Vitae, but now I think the problems must be older than that…or they wouldn’t have done the rejection.  I don’t know how Benedict came out so well.   But I am not surprised that Cardinal Kasper is so off base.  God bless you.”

10/1/2014:  “John, I was thinking more about my visit to Germany.  There are very few children…even at Mass on Sunday.  Population isn’t growing.  We went to several big beaches and spent one day at a big Cedar Point type amusement park.  All those places were filled with children…but no large families.   At one place I saw a family with four children…and the mom had a big cross on her T-shirt!   In three weeks, I saw exactly three families with three children each…many had two, many had one.   By contrast, there are pets everywhere!  There is a sort of Humane Society…government run…which picks up stray dogs and cats.  But no matter how many they find, they can’t put them down unless they are really dying!   I heard of a lady who saw a deer dying in the road, hit by a car, and wanted to call a veterinarian!

There are all sorts of rules protecting wildlife, even bugs, places you can’t walk in the parks, etc., which give the impression that human life is the least valued!  They have a lot of those big windmills for electricity…but some people are trying to ban them because when they swing around they might hit birds!  I saw a couple out biking, with one bike pulling one of those little trailers made to hold a small child….but it had a dog in it.  A couple on the boardwalk at the beach were pushing a buggy…with two dogs in it!  And I heard of a place where you get fined if they hear your baby crying!   Nothing if your dog is barking.”

10/2/2014:  “John, do you read “NOR Daily Feed” on line?    New Oxford Review has an article today on Cardinal Kasper, with him saying that Humanae Vitae was just an ideal, but that the decision to use contraception was to be left up to the conscience of the couple!      God bless you.”

Continued next week; please come back for John’s comments.