REASONS CLERGY GIVE FOR THEIR SILENCE AT THE PULPIT
ON NFP - Part 4 |
"I’m not prepared to speak about these issues
because I wasn’t trained in the seminary for this."
We find that many clergy are woefully unprepared to address
these issues. They have not kept up with their reading and
personal ongoing formation in the areas of human sexuality,
chastity and marriage. But this is not an acceptable excuse.
What other profession would be excused from professional
ongoing formation, keeping abreast with contemporary
developments in their profession? If medical doctors did not
keep themselves updated, they would lose their license to
practice medicine. Can it be any different for the clergy?
There are excellent materials available today to help us
understand the beauty of God’s plan for human love, and
especially marital love. There is Pope John Paul II’s
Theology of the Body; there is Christian Personalism. There
are the writings of reliable moral theologians. There are
the writings, CDs and videotapes of Dr. Janet Smith. There
are the testimonies of thousands of married couples that
have discovered the blessings that these values have brought
into their marriages and families. Two readily available
sources for materials on Natural Family Planning and the
harms of contraception and sterilization are One More Soul (www.OMSoul.com)
and the Couple to Couple League International (www.ccli.org).
CCL provides three-day clergy conferences twice a year at
Covington, Kentucky. NFP Outreach (www.nfpoutreach.org)
helps design and conduct clergy conferences for entire
dioceses on the topic of "How to Preach God’s Plan for
Marriage and Spousal Love From the Pulpit." There are many
good Catholic doctors who are willing to bring their
expertise to these conferences. And there are hundreds of
married couples that are willing to give their testimonies
about the values of NFP in their marriages.
Ignorance was never a good excuse for justifying neglect.
And it will not wash today in areas that are so vital to
good marriages and happy families.
Fr. Matthew Habiger OSB
www.nfpoutreach.org
mhabiger@kansasmonks.org
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