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Transcription
Father Bill Wehry recently attended the national Cursillo encounter in Omaha, Nebraska. Cursillo is a Catholic spirituality movement that was founded in Mallorca, Spain in 1944 and has spread worldwide. The weekend conference features talks by lay people and priests, focusing on general spirituality. After the weekend, participants are encouraged to join a weekly prayer and share group to continue their spiritual growth. Father Bill highly recommends Cursillo for anyone interested in deepening their Catholic faith. To join, approach a parishioner involved in the movement or contact Father Bill. In other news, the new bishop, Bishop Timothy Senior, is visiting different churches in the diocese and emphasizing the importance of service. He is also available to support and collaborate with priests. The FDA has recently approved the sale of an over-the-counter birth control pill called Opil. While Catholics do not believe in artificial contraception, the health risks associated with this p Welcome to In the News Show. I am your host, Judy Dozic-Ottis, and I'm here with my faithful co-host, Father Bill Wehry. Hello, Father Bill and Larissa. Hello, Judy. Hello, everybody out there. How you doing? I hope you're having a great day. Thank you to Joe Novosinski for our technical assistance and for David Hilowitz for our theme music. So, Father, are you going to enlighten us about your Curseo weekend? You just got back from Curseo? Yes. It is the national Curseo encounter, as we call it, the annual conference. It was in Omaha, Nebraska. And I'm very involved in the Curseo movement. And it was founded, it's a Catholic spirituality movement, founded in Mallorca, Spain in 1944 and has spread throughout the whole world. It's very strong here in the diocese of Harrisburg. And I highly recommend a Curseo weekend for people to make. You should approach a parishioner who is involved in the Curseo movement. That's the way that's how we register. Basically, it's one on one. In any case, it is a weekend Thursday through Sunday that features a series of talks by by lay people, lay leaders and also one or two priests on the weekend. And it's general spirituality. And people come off of the weekend oftentimes very pumped up and they're very excited. And they're supposed to springboard into a once a week prayer and share group. And that goes on basically for the rest of their lives and in which they share their spiritual lives of the previous week, what they're doing in terms of prayer and piety, what they're doing in terms of spiritual reading, whether it's the Bible or other resources and what they're doing in terms of evangelization and action, charity. And really, that accountability is so important in the small group. I do a once a week small group myself here in the parish. I really like it and it keeps the ball rolling from the high of the weekend, which is a very, very good experience for many people. So it was about 400 people in Omaha, Nebraska, Creighton University. We have them at different locations around the around the nation. Last year was Orange, California. I did not make that one. But it's been at Villanova University and University of Scranton and various various places, locations. And the people from all over the United States come. And we actually had some representatives from Mallorca, Spain, also that keep the flame burning on the founder, who was a native of Mallorca, Eduardo Bonin, one of the preeminent founder, as one of the manuals says. And so it's just a really great experience. And it really helps people in their Catholic faith and in their relationship with Jesus Christ and with with others. And it emphasizes the encounter with self, encounter with Christ and encounter with others. So it's a package deal, which is basic Christianity. Cursillo is a C-U-R-S-I-L-L-O. That means short course in Christianity. So basically, that's that's what it is. And very, very much to be recommended. How do we get in touch if our listeners would like to become part of the Cursillo movement in the diocese? What is a way to get in touch with someone to do that? Well, like I said, the best way is to approach somebody in the parish who is a – because you have to be sponsored. You're sponsored over the weekend. So approach somebody in the parish. If you know that there is a Cursillo group there and you know one of the parishioners, approach that person. Or call me. You can definitely call me through Holy Family Radio or get in touch with me. I'm Sacred Heart, Lewistown, St. Jude, Mifflintown. And I can set you up with a sponsor. Okay. That sounds good. If anyone's interested in that, please contact Father or to approach someone at your local parish. I know that there's probably many Cursillistas that are in our diocese. I know many of them have been on pilgrimages with them. And our own station manager, Joe Nebestinsky, is a Cursillista. And his wife as well. That's right. So you could just call here at the station. He can fill you in as well. Okay. So we'll move along. I wanted to mention that our new bishop, Bishop Timothy Senior, is now going around to all the deaneries and celebrating masses at the different churches and the various deaneries. And he'll be doing that through the summer. And I had the privilege to experience one of his masses last Tuesday, at least from when we're recording this, at Holy Name of Jesus in the Harrisburg deanery, the Dauphin deanery. And it was very well attended. And a lot of priests, Father, I think you were there. Yes. It was very special to experience our new bishop in saying a mass. And his emphasis was on service and how we can serve and being open to what Christ is asking us to do in our lives and the different ways and the different talents he asks us to use. So I would encourage, I know on the Catholic Witness there is a listing of the other masses that Bishop Senior is going to be doing. So if you have the opportunity there during the week, usually at 7 o'clock, a Tuesday or Wednesday or a Thursday, please take advantage of that. It certainly was well worth it. And he took the time at the end of mass to make sure that he greeted everyone properly and took time with everyone and asked them their name and what parish they were from. And he was very, very gracious. So the mass was beautiful and he was very gracious. And so please, just encouraging everybody to do that. He precedes each mass and each deanery with a meeting with the priests of the deanery. OK. We all benefited from that. And once again, he made clear that he was available to us as priests. He considers us, as every bishop should, collaborators and consultants. We are, you know, his mainstay, the priests. We're the backbone of the diocese, of course, priests in the parish. And he made it very clear that he wanted to be of service to us, to support us. We will certainly support him. It was a very good deanery meeting and we're expecting great things from Bishop Senior. Yes, we are. And we welcome him again to the diocese. So going on to the next topic, I saw this. Actually, I think it was via the Catholic News Agency, but it's from the Washington Stand. And this is something that certainly has been in the news in the last couple of weeks, that the FDA has now made a decision to sell birth control pills over-the-counter for women. And it is a low-dose, over-the-counter birth control pill. Low-dose, it's called Opil. And it just has one of the hormones in it, a progestin-only pill. But still, it's causing quite a stir because it's talking a lot about what the side effects are. As Catholics, of course, we don't believe in artificial contraception, but we are also always concerned about the health of individuals. And certainly with this being of a cause to women and it can cause a lot of problems, not only while they're taking it, but after, lifetime effects. It can cause cancer. It can cause depression. Ectoptic pregnancy, if a woman should get pregnant on this birth control pill. Blood clots, heart attacks, strokes. It can also be, and a lot of women may not know this, that birth control pills generally are a potential abortifacient. It can actually cause an abortion. If there was a child forming in the womb at the time while they're taking the pill, it could actually expel the child or the cells that are forming. If it hasn't formed into a child yet, the actual cells. So diabetes, religious liberty is at stake. You know, Father, how can we reach out to women and educate them about how dangerous this is? That's a good question. This weighs on my heart very much. I'm reviving my, I've never gave it up, but I'm re-strengthening my interest in natural family planning and how healthy that is. And it revived my interest just re-listening to a CD by Jason Ebert, very prominent, Jason and Kristalina Ebert, very prominent authors and speakers in this area. And the CD is called Green Sex. Kind of a funny name. Green Sex. Green meaning environmentally sound, both for the woman's body that the birth control pill, especially, maybe not marionette, but the pill, as you just made the point, Judy, is toxic. There's another side effect you didn't mention, which can happen. Now, all these don't happen to every woman, but one is a lower libido, which is kind of counterintuitive. It's kind of funny because people take the pill in order to enjoy sex more, but the chemicals sometimes lower sex drive on the part of the woman. I'm going to be meeting with one of the new employees of the diocese in the Family Life office, and she's wife and mother, and she's an expert in this area. And I do also, I want to get the word out. I think I'm going to buy copies of that CD. It's a fabulous CD about natural family planning and chastity and how poison the pill is. You're speaking to a group of women, a large group of women. I think it might have been college women. I'm not college-age women. And he was very well received. And his emphasis was how NFP preserves the dignity of the woman, of womanhood. Yes. And that was, you know, it's another way of looking at it. Some people think it's the old rhythm, calendar rhythm method. But it's not. It's much more accurate than that. And the technology keeps improving in terms of digital thermometers and where the women can be more accurate in terms of their fertile periods and infertile periods. And natural parent planning, I think, as everybody knows, is what I call strategic abstinence, strategic abstinence, where if a couple wants to avoid another birth, which you can do, you can plan your family's size prudently. And a couple might say, you know, this is not a good time for a baby right now. It could be a number of reasons. I've been sick and you've been laid off from your job and we already have a number of children. You can exercise strategic abstinence where you don't violate the marital act. Artificial contraception, either the pill or the barrier method, the condom, violates the sacred marital embrace of the couple, which is the act of the covenant between the two of them, which is an act of babies and an act of bonding. Everybody's okay with the bonding part. That's the fun part and that's fine. But it's got to be integral. It's got to be integrated with the procreative. Every act, according to Catholic teaching, has to be open to new life. But you can strategize the size of the family and limit the marital embrace, intercourse, to the times that the woman is naturally infertile. And what a wonderful thing. God provides that. And we can target it. We can target that. The couple can target that particular space, if you will, in the month and reserve the marital embrace for that time. As 98 correctly done, and the couple really does need instruction on this. Many parishes have couples instructing couples. We have one such couple as well on the masthead of the bulletin. There are names and their phone numbers. They don't get a lot of calls. Nevertheless, you really need to be instructed. And it is a sacrifice because there can be, at times, long periods of abstinence. But take up your cross and follow me. And Jason Ebert made that point in the CD. He said, my wife and I, Kristalina and I, practice it. And it is difficult. We really don't want to exercise this method very much. But we do. And there are blessings to it. And it really is green sex. You know, it is healthy spiritually but physically as well. So I hope to get some ideas from Melissa, the diocese employee just hired on, and get some ideas on how we can get the word out on this. That will take us to our break, and we'll be right back.
