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.