The Plan
In 1989 the NCCB Bishops’ Committee for Pastoral Research and Practices strongly urged that all engaged couples should be required to take a full course on Natural Family Planning as a normal part of preparation for marriage. They noted that engaged couples have a need and right to know this information.
Vision Now + 20 is a PLAN to implement this recommendation. Vision Now + 20 looks forward to the day when every priest, supported by professionally trained volunteer married couples, requires a full course of instruction on NFP taught in the context of marital chastity and generosity in the service of life.
In the United States each year, approximately 165,000 Catholic couples enter Christian marriage. (2013: 163,976, OCD; 2000: about 275,000) A national network of NFPI-trained volunteer Teaching Couples will have the capacity to teach every Catholic engaged couple how to practice chaste and generous Natural Family Planning. Each Teaching Couple can teach 35 to 50 such student couples; thus a combination of geography and numbers will require a network of approximately 5,000 volunteer Teaching Couples to serve 165,000 marriages each year.
How does an organization train 5,000 volunteer Teaching Couples?
That’s precisely what we need to talk about with bishops who share this vision.
Next week: Translating the Vision Goals into Reality
John F. Kippley (September 2014)