Fr. Paul Marx, OSB
At about 8:10 a.m. on Saturday, March 20, just shy of his 90th birthday, Father Paul Marx, OSB, went to his eternal reward. In his college years at St. John’s in Collegeville, MN, he and Dr. Konald Prem played on the same football team. He was ordained a Benedictine priest in 1947 and then earned his doctorate in Family Sociology. In the Fifties and Sixties, as a professor at St. John’s, he promoted natural family planning in his sociology courses. He liked to tell us newcomers to the pro-chastity movement that he used to be called Father Temperature. He was the priestly patriarch of the pro-life movement, and he knew from the beginning that a society’s acceptance of contraception inevitably leads that society to accept abortion. He founded the Human Life Center at St. John’s University in 1972 to promote natural family planning, and in 1980 he founded Human Life International to continue that work and to focus even more on combating the growing international acceptance of abortion. When he returned to St. John’s Abbey about ten years ago, he continued to support pro-life endeavors behind the scenes. Since we founded NFP International in 2004, Father Marx has been a regular contributor and correspondent. John has been privileged to visit him three times in those years. We pray for him and to him for his intercession for this pro-family and pro-life apostolate.
Updated First Edition of NFPI Manual
An updated version of Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach has been posted to the NFP International website and is also available for purchase from Lulu.com. At the website, the manual is now in one PDF instead of ten separate PDFs. We are also asking for registration and a donation of $10. For those who are truly poor, it is still available for free.
Doering’s Temperature Study Available in English
In 1967 Professor and Doctor G. K. Doering published his temperature-only NFP study in a German language medical journal. We have quoted from its abstract in English for many years, but we did not have an English translation. Recently, we hired a translator who produced a good literal translation. Then our Czech-Republic and German-speaking colleague, David Prentis reviewed it and modified it in terms of specialized NFP terminology. We are pleased to have it available at the NFP International website. It provides excellent support for continuing to teach and use the temperature sign, and it is well worth your reading.