Announcing 2015 Calegari Award Recipient

The Calegari Award recipient is selected by CANFP in recognition of unique and significant contributions to the people of California, reflecting the vision, insight, and faithful dedication of Fr. Marc Calegari, SJ — advocating for NFP, and the values and principles on which it is based.

We are pleased to announce the 2015 Calegari Award Recipient is Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, the unanimous selection of the Award Committee, in gratitude for, and recognition of, decades of courageous leadership as an advocate for love and life. Despite demanding national responsibilities as Chairman of the USCCB Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, Archbishop Cordileone, has tirelessly served the people of California, and especially those in the three Dioceses he has been assigned—San Diego, Oakland, and the Archdiocese of San Francisco—providing formation and services to educate and inspire all to our call to holiness. As Bishop of both Oakland and San Francisco, he called upon the experts at CANFP to provide the seminarians studying for those dioceses a week long program on God’s Design for Married Love. He also provided a program on marriage for the clergy of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and prioritized the need for a marriage and family life ministry within the Archdiocese, reactivating that position with dedicated resources and director. He has served on the Executive Board of CANFP since 2009, providing inspired leadership, humble service, and creative ideas that have found their voice in many CANFP events and outreach.

Supporters are invited to join us in honoring Archbishop Cordileone at the 2015 CANFP Banquet, where he will be presented with this award, to be held Aug. 22, 2015 at the Event Center, St. Mary’s Cathedral, at the conclusion of the 2015 Statewide Conference, MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM. Archbishop Cordileone will be celebrating Mass immediately prior to the Banquet, at 5:30pm, at St. Mary’s Cathedral. All are welcome to attend! Info at www.canfp.org

Thank You Archbishop Cordileone, from the NFP Community of California, and the generations to come who will reap the fruit of your vision and faithful service!

Honoring Fr. Marc Calegari, SJ

Fr. Calegari was born in San Francisco in 1930, and grew up on the Peninsula. Upon graduating from Serra High School, he entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained in 1961.

Even as a seminarian he foresaw the need for natural family planning centers, studied European examples of them, and amassed a vast collection of articles, tapes, and books in the field. He was in demand throughout the nation for institutes, speeches, leadership formation, and a fabled degree of personal counseling. He knew immediately that the introduction of the birth control pill in the early 60’s would be physically and morally disastrous for marriages in general and particularly devastating to women. He initiated a prophetic role of NFP proselytizing, undergirding his arguments with both the theological and the biological facts. He was a tremendous influence on many in the California NFP movement.

Hence, for his early, necessary, vital, prophetic role in the development of NFP teaching in the United States we have named the CANFP Award after Father Marc Calegari.