NFP Outreach
NFP — It’s more than a method — it’s a way of Life. Father McCaffrey of NFP Outreach has seen it time and again: As couples are convicted about their use of birth control, they approach NFP, many times with fear and trembling. But through prayer, fasting, and the practice of Natural Family Planning, hearts are laid bare. Husbands and wives turn back to the family, and materialism loses its grip. 

The resulting generosity of families who are open to life begets charity, and it’s a benevolent charity with the power to change the world. This ideal propels NFP Outreach to reap a harvest for God — one family, one parish at a time.

For the last six years, NFP Outreach has been conducting one-day seminars at parishes all over the United States. Approximately forty weekends out of the year, Father McCaffrey is preaching the Sunday homilies at various churches, using the pulpit to bring a message of uncompromising love to a captive congregation. He has twenty or so minutes to make his point, and boy, does he drive it home! 

“Contraception,” he declares pointedly, “is like a cancer eating away at the souls of people and the soul of the Church. . . . The contraceptive mentality among Catholics is weakening the desire to evangelize on the part of Catholics. . . . Artificial contraception is a sin against purity . . . and thus forbidden by the sixth commandment. . . . If we do not follow the teachings of the Church our eternal salvation is jeopardized. . . . Sterilization . . . destroys the powers of God.”

And the response? He’s warmly received. He’s applauded. He’s bringing truth to a people who haven’t heard such things before now, and by and large, they appreciate it.

After the last Mass of the day, the congregation is invited to a Sunday afternoon seminar. Through this seminar, NFP Outreach engages local workers who are ready to reap and multiply the harvest of this message. A local NFP couple or the parish Respect Life Committee is there to provide ongoing teaching of NFP methods. A board-certified physician presents an evaluation of the scientific aspects of the method. And the crowning moment is the witness of a local couple who themselves who were once convicted about their own use of birth control, now encouraging their peers to open their hearts and mend their ways. 

This two-tiered approach has been effective in helping the Outreach to achieve its three main objectives: to reach lay people who are not likely to be looking for this information on their own; to strengthen priests, many of whom haven’t heard the message themselves; and to build up the local NFP classes. 

The Holy Father has said, “As the family goes, so goes the Church.” In order to battle abortion and the entire culture of death, we must learn to fight on a whole new level — an interior level that involves what Scripture calls the “circumcision” of our own hearts first (see Deut. 10:16). To achieve the culture of life, the baptized members of His Church must lay the ax to the very core of the problem: our lack of generosity and openness to life. 

The practice of NFP wipes out the limiting conditions we often place on our lives, our love, and our God. The New Evangelization depends on families, and NFP Outreach is one more organization giving us the tools to sanctify our marriages, raise saints, and evangelize our neighbors.

To obtain a free tape or other information, write NFP Outreach and Father McCaffrey at 3366 NW Expressway, Bldg. D, Suite 630, Oklahoma City, OK 73112; phone: 405-942-4022; e-mail: nfpoutreach@worldnet.att.net.

Thomas Aquinas College
One of the younger colleges in the country has managed to hire some of the oldest, most respected teachers in the world. Welcome to Santa Paula, California: home to Thomas Aquinas College. Since its founding in 1971, Thomas Aquinas College has relied on the great masters to impart wisdom to its students. 

Here, education isn’t merely an experiment in the latest teaching fads. It’s a four-year adventure in which students develop their intelligence and hone their minds. They do this by reading the authors that have shaped the world. 

Plato, Socrates, Shakespeare, and yes, St. Thomas Aquinas are but a few of the greats whose books are the backbone of the college’s curriculum. According to the preface of the college’s founding document, “The texts studied within the curriculum are the original writings of the greatest minds in our intellectual tradition. They are to be read not primarily for historical or cultural reasons, but because they are the best attempts to understand things in themselves while attending to our common experience." These texts include "the original works of the best, most influential authors, poets, scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and theologians of Western Civilization.”

The school offers one integrated program, exposing students to all the liberal arts and sciences and organized under the light of the Catholic Faith. Only primary texts are read, not books of commentary, criticism, or literary theory. And rather than having lectures by opinionated professors, Thomas Aquinas relies on the seminar method: Tutors facilitate discussions in class, so students will learn to question and develop their own opinions.

Nevertheless, the Thomas Aquinas ideal is that teaching without a claim to the truth would be arrogant and empty. So these young people share a journey of the soul as well as of the intellect. “Faith seeking understanding”: It’s this ancient motto that makes Thomas Aquinas College Catholic to the core. 

Thomas Aquinas offers thirty years’ proof that a college can maintain academic excellence and integrity and still be subject to the Magisterium of the Church. In 1999, the U.S. Bishops approved guidelines to implement the papal encyclical dealing with Catholic colleges, Ex Corde Ecclesiae. The profession of faith that is now required of Catholic theology teachers across the country was already standard operating procedure at Thomas Aquinas. President Thomas E. Dillon called it a truth in advertising issue. “If colleges call themselves Catholic, they should teach Catholic theology.” 

Reflecting that ideal, classes on this campus routinely begin with prayer. Freshmen are required to read the entire Bible. (Yes, Envoy readers, that includes the deuterocanonical books.) A rich, sacramental campus life includes Mass three times a day, frequent Confession, benediction, adoration, and daily rosaries. Three resident priests are available to provide spiritual direction. 

A strict moral code is enforced: Alcohol or drugs are not tolerated, nor visits to dorms of the opposite sex. Students address each other as “Mister” or “Miss” and adhere to a “no jeans” dress code.

The formula seems to be working. Not only do twelve percent of graduates go on to take religious vows, but the College boasts of several other successes that rank it at the top of American liberal arts colleges, secular ones included:

• Students who go on to become Ph.D. candidates are streaming out at a rate triple that of any other United States college.
• Fifty percent of all graduates go on to graduate school.
• Freshman SAT scores are in the top ten to fifteen percent of the nation.
• The school boasts the smallest ratio of students to faculty in class in the nation (ten to one).
• U.S. News & World Report has ranked the institution as the number one “Best Value” among all Catholic national liberal arts colleges (and number three among all national liberal arts colleges).

Many alumni recall their years at the college as a time when they learned to love truth and to be confident they could attain it. Though some students go to college merely for an education, students at Thomas Aquinas receive a gift: as the college catalog puts it, “a lifelong perception of the world, and an understanding of the essential truths which govern it.”

For admissions information, contact Mr. Thomas Susanka, Jr., Director of Admissions, Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA 
93060; 800-634-9797; www.thomasaquinas.edu. 

TiberRiver.com
The Tiber River is the third largest river in Italy. It flows south in a picturesque, winding countryside to empty via a delta in the Tyrhenian Sea near Rome. And now, surfing in the Tiber River can bring Rome to you. An Internet company, the Tiber River apostolate specializes in helping you choose sound Catholic reading that is tailored to your needs.

There are vast amounts of “Catholic” reading on the market today. Until now, one would have to purchase and read an entire book to determine whether it was in union with Catholic teaching. Tiber River has changed all that. With a click of a mouse, you can now receive expert opinions on old and new Catholic books. Tiber River has been online since March 2000, reading, evaluating, and recommending. Anthony Buono is at the helm of this non-profit, dot-com company. And the ideals he espouses are quite lofty: “Our goal is to evaluate every book in the world that claims to be Catholic.” These evaluations are then to be made available, free of charge, via the Internet. 

Of course, opinions are only as good as those who give them, right? Anthony Buono has managed to cull the talents of clerical and lay people widely recognized as faithful Catholics who have a great love for the Church. In fact, you’ve seen many of them between the covers of Envoy: Mike Aquilina, Johnette Benkovic, Scott Hahn, Bud McFarlane Jr. . . . these and more are part of Tiber River’s Expert Advisory Council. In addition to offering evaluations, ratings, and book reviews, the reviewers have their own top ten suggested reads listed on the site. 

If, after reading all Tiber River has to say about a book, you still are not sure if it’s what you want, do what you’d do at any bookstore. Open the pages, peruse the table of contents, and even read the first page to get a good feel for the author: all from your computer. Once you’ve made a decision, these good people can even direct your browser to an Internet bookseller who carries that title. Tiber River’s intent is to make this dot.com purchase as reliable and as personal as possible. Enter into a real-time chat with one of the staff. Ask for personal help as you peruse titles, looking for that perfect book for yourself or for a friend. Spend as many hours as you like, looking through the database with the easy-to-use search engine. And have confidence in the Catholic authenticity of what you are reading. Can it get any better?
So, slide in a CD, pour yourself a cup of java, and take a smooth sail down the Tiber. 

Tiber River can be accessed online at www.tiberriver.com, or write them at Tiber River, 24 Frank Lloyd Wright Dr., P.O. Box 484, Ann Arbor, MI 48106.

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