Thursday, 19 July 2012 13:53

Judith Leonard is looking for a few good couples to spread the “good news” about natural family planning.
Leonard, director of the diocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life, is extending an invitation to a teacher training on the Ovulation Method of Natural Family Planning in conjunction with the Midwest Catholic Family Conference, Aug. 3-5, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.
Potential teachers must be presently practicing or believers in the use of natural family planning, and must be recommended by their pastor.
Leonard will give the training along with her husband, Gerald, and Martina Holmes, all master teachers of the Family of the Americas Ovulation Method.
Holmes, the mother of four and a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Wichita, has been teaching in the diocese for over nine years. She graduated from Wichita State University in 1995 with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry.
Gerald Leonard has been teaching with Judith for over 25 years. He is the retired director of Wichita Biddy Basketball and a former high school coach and principal. As director of NFP, Judith has taught and trained teachers locally, nationally with the Missionaries of Charity, and internationally in the Philippines, China, and Rome.
Pope John Paul II taught that sexual relations are based on mutual self-giving rooted in unifying the sexes within marriage. He said the sexual revolution has treated people, especially women, as objects to be used.
Leonard said artificial methods of contraception violate the physical integrity of the woman while liberating the man for selfish pursuit of his own pleasure.
“Instead of promoting mutual love, they tend to objectify one’s spouse and to reduce him or her (generally her) to a mere means. In attempting to outwit nature, they risk damaging the health of the woman in a way that natural family planning does not,” she said.
The fruit of “sexual freedom” has become family breakdown as well as ever increasing cases of HPV, herpes, AIDS, Chlamydia, abnormal PAPs and more, Leonard said.
“The sexual revolution bought into so readily by baby boomers has produced rising illegitimacy and divorce rates, greater incidence of child abuse, and the growing acceptance of ‘non-traditional’ families.
Want to teach NFP?
If you are interested in becoming a NFP teacher or NFP teaching couple, contact the Office of Family Life and Natural Family Planning at (316) 685-6776 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .