Director’s Desk

AMA Warning: Hormonal Birth Control Pills and IUDs Increase Breast Cancer Risk by Sheila St. John

The American Medical Association (AMA) has announced that use of hormonal birth control, including hormonal IUDs, increases by as much as 30% a woman’s relative risk of breast cancer, and led with this news in the March 23, 2023 AMA Medical Bulletin. Wait, you might ask—-didn’t we already know... [Read more...]

NFP is about Relationships by Sheila St. John

Duh. Of course NFP is about relationships! Respecting and integrating our fertility and freely giving of the entirety of our self in the marital embrace is at the core of the marital relationship, and NFP. But I am talking about the importance of relationship in a broader sense, when it comes to sharing... [Read more...]

California’s secret Weapon by Sheila St. John

I love you, California, you’re the greatest state of all. I love you in the winter, summer, spring and in the fall. I love your fertile valleys; your dear mountains I adore. I love your grand old ocean and I love her rugged shore. Perhaps my affection for our beautiful state was destined,... [Read more...]

Dobbs: Rejoice!…and then what? by Sheila St. John

We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled. The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision, including the one on which the defenders of Roe and Casey now chiefly rely—the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment”... [Read more...]

Celebrating Family! by Sheila St. John

Family Love: a Vocation and a Path to Holiness is the theme for the X Meeting of Families to be held in Rome the end of June,2022, culminating a year-long celebration of the family, declared by Pope Francis on Dec. 20, 2020. If this is news to you, and you are only just now finding out we are completing... [Read more...]

Grass is Greener…or is it? by Sheila St. John

Human nature is such (or is it just me?) that it can be easier to focus on our problems than our blessings, and to assume others have it so much easier or better than us, and that our lives would be so much easier or better, too, if only_____ (fill in the blank). A visual depiction of this perspective... [Read more...]

Watch Out World by Sheila St. John

I have been pondering, did I unwittingly get accustomed to a slower pace during “Covid Lockdown”, or has it just been really busy lately? A little of the first, no doubt, but it has definitely been a busy few months! The flurry of gatherings now that we can meet in person, while demanding, has been... [Read more...]

Coloring Inside the Lines by Sheila St. John

I think often of a meeting I had with a devoted mom, and her squirming toddler. Feeling for the mom, as she struggled to concentrate on our conversation while her daughter competed for her attention, I grabbed a coloring book and crayons off a nearby shelf and offered them to the child. The mom intercepted... [Read more...]

CANFP Members Guide Our Course by Sheila St. John

I believe the first time I met CANFP Member Tom Spencer, and his wife Cheley, was almost twenty years ago, when they spoke for us at the four day convocation CANFP provided on God’s Design for Married Love, for almost 100 clergy of the Diocese of Fresno. And now, almost 20 years later, two of their... [Read more...]

Preparation for NFP by Sheila St. John

Most couples start off their marriage ignorant of NFP, and its role in understanding, appreciating, and integrating their mutual fertility. Even if an engaged couple is fortunate enough to be introduced to NFP while preparing for marriage, it is often in a way that is so cursory, it is ineffective in... [Read more...]