Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Sister Renee Mirkes, an ethicist at the St. Paul VI Institute, Omaha, Nebraska shares on how one of her more recent presentations in the Illinois Diocese of Belleville was called to be.
Katie, the theology department chair at Mater Dei High School, and I spoke on the phone about a question one of her female students brought to her attention. She (the student) was suffering from secondary dysmenorrhea, or painful periods and heavy bleeding, and wanted to know whether what her doctor was suggesting–inserting a Mirena IUD into her uterus–was a morally acceptable procedure.
I explained to Katie that while the IUD is a contraceptive, in this case it would be used therapeutically rather than as a contraceptive and, therefore, could be morally licit. However, insertion of the IUD left another question unanswered, also of moral consequence: was this approach good medicine? I explained how a NaPro doctor would treat the student and why it represents a medically superior way to treat an adolescent with secondary dysmenorrhea. I eventually summarized a compare and contrast chart on treating dysmenorrhea between mainstream OB/Gyn and what a NaPro doc would do and sent it to Katie. She emailed me back–like within seconds of receiving it–saying I just had to come to Mater Dei High School and present the chart to all their 174 female students.
That conversation and conclusion evolved into what I and an Omaha FertilityCare practitioner, Shari Barrios, presented on the evening of October 6th. We developed a three-part Mother-Daughter lecture (The NaProTechnology Revolution and YOU) with the first part–The Wonder of EVE–where Shari exposed the beauty and power of female physiology and the ovulatory/menstrual cycle; the second part where I presented “Chastity, the Church and YOU” and the third segment–where Shari and I compared and contrasted the Mirena IUD approach to secondary dysmenorrhea with that of the NaPro schematic.
The delivery was superb, the reception beyond my wildest expectations, and the snowball-down-the-hill interest in the Illinois diocese of Belleville was simply heart-warming.
Lesson learned: God is much, much bigger than any of our misgivings.
