100% Pro-Life, Pro-Family & Pro-NFP Parish

As the pastor of a vibrant, faith-filled parish here in Orange County, I have personally witnessed the blessings God has bestowed upon our community because of our commitment to being 100% Pro-Life, Pro-Family and Pro-NFP. This commitment was brought into clear and urgent focus when I became pastor back in 2011, in particular when I met with the couple who had just started a new Marriage Preparation program here at our parish. At our first meeting, the couple shared with me their passion for a new approach to marriage preparation as a result of their negative experiences in researching, and even attending, several Marriage Preparation programs. Their concern was that none of the programs they looked into mentioned anything about Natural Family Planning. It seemed to be the “forbidden” topic, and it was barely even mentioned in many of the programs they had become familiar with. They came up with a comprehensive plan to stress the importance of this topic and to provide accurate and insightful instruction on Natural Family Planning following all of the teachings of the Church and the latest research regarding methods and the profound spirituality of authentic love at the heart of NFP. This approach proved so successful that soon we had too many people signing up for our program. The classroom space we were using just wasn’t big enough to handle the number of couples that wanted to take our program! It was so encouraging! And it was a clear affirmation to me and to the couple in charge of our program that we were addressing a great need for the young couples who came to us for solid Catholic marriage preparation.

This commitment to the Church’s incredibly valuable teaching about love and sexuality in married life has become a foundational element of the spirituality at the heart of our efforts to evangelize families here at our parish. In my nine years now as pastor, we have seen our parish community grow with many young families with lots of beautiful children. It has become one of the most attractive features of our community, and it is largely based on our promotion of the theology of marriage and the family and openness to life. The commitment to NFP among our families is a tremendous source of spiritual and emotional strength for our growing network of large families who share their beautiful witness with our community each and every day. About two years ago, as I was greeting people as they left the church after a Sunday morning Mass, an elderly parishioner said to me; “Father. It is so beautiful and encouraging to see so many large families with wonderful children here at our parish!” This is one of the great blessings that come to a community that lives the Gospel of Life, and NFP is a huge part of that blessing. Our promotion of openness to life and the power of NFP has led several of our parishioners to become trained teachers in NFP, courageously and joyfully sharing this aspect of the Good News with others who seek to know the benefits that come from living married life according to the Church’s teachings and the principles of NFP.

It has truly been one blessing after another, thanks be to God! And thanks to the power and wisdom of the commitment to NFP.