Priests from all over the country are bolstering their knowledge about Natural Family Planning and the Church’s teachings on marital love, and then taking that knowledge back to the married and engaged couples that they counsel. Since 1997, the Cincinnati-based Couple to Couple League (CCL) has been hosting Clergy Seminars geared specifically toward empowering priests to be better equipped to lead couples to the truth on the very difficult topic of sexuality.
Over 250 clergy, mainly from the United States, have attended the twice-a-year seminars, typically scheduled for the week after Easter and the first week of November in Cincinnati, Ohio. During the seminars, the clergy immerse themselves in a wide array of topics focusing on NFP and related issues. One presentation, “A History of NFP,” provides a historical perspective of the NFP movement from biblical times to the present, with the main emphasis on American NFP developments. A brief overview of the Sympto-Thermal Method is presented by a local CCL Teaching Couple. Their personal witness and experience with teaching NFP lend credibility to CCL’s triple-strand approach — morality, method, and ecological breastfeeding.
Two priests comprise an integral part of the faculty. One priest presents the “Theology of the Body” and why NFP is part of God’s plan for human love. The second priest shares how he incorporates the message of NFP into his parish marriage preparation program, giving plenty of “nuts and bolts” — practical hints — for accomplishing this successfully. Sufficient time is carved out for dialog between the speakers and the participants.
A medical doctor is part of the faculty as well. He/she presents the “Medical Implications of Hormonal Birth Control, Infertility and Sterilization,” which prepares the priests for answering the tough questions they will receive in their counseling. Rounding out the schedule is a local NFP-user couple giving witness to their conversion to NFP and how it has enriched their marriage. The attendees consistently rank this personal witness as one of their favorite parts of the seminar, as well as the informational interaction they have with other NFP user couples who typically attend one of the dinners.
Though the seminars have a CCL orientation, the faculty makes reference to other NFP providers in the clergy’s local areas. CCL’s goal regarding these seminars is to promote NFP in general by utilizing all of the local NFP providers. Finally, of primary importance to the seminar schedule, is the incorporation of daily prayer with the Liturgy of the Hours and Mass.
After the November 2003 seminar, several attendees from Crookston, Minnesota returned to their diocese to ask the bishop to host the Clergy Seminar in their own diocese. As a result, Bishop Victor Balke hosted the CCL Clergy Seminar in April 2004 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota — thirty-nine priests participated. CCL has since done several more “on the road” seminars in other dioceses.
The registration fee of the Cincinnati seminar is 185.00, which includes all meals (except one evening dinner) and a tote bag full of books and materials retailing for over $100.00. Clergy seminars taken “on the road” are typically funded by the local diocese and/or grants received through local volunteers’ efforts. Consider bringing the NFP message to your clergy by hosting a clergy seminars!
(Rich Braun is the National Field Director and Director of International Development for CCL.)
