ARTICLES

Pro-Life Haven

Where Doctors and Patients Can Meet

By Anne Knight

The Culture of Life Family Services Center opened its doors in Escondido on March 13 to offer natural family planning classes in English and Spanish. The Center is the newest apostolate of Deacon Ken and Marie Finn. The Finns, under the aegis of St. Dismas Guild, run a prison ministry, distribute the Bread of Life Catholic Bible Study; lead a Bible study group; Ken leads Benedictus, a ministry to Catholic men. Marie said that she and her husband had contemplated the center "for a long time.... We really felt led by the Lord -- the Holy Spirit -- to combat not only contraception, but also divorce, the whole thing that's going on in the family.... We want healing in marriages, healing in families and in relationships." They have led a weekly pro-life rosary at George Kung's abortion clinic in San Marcos for the past three years.

Dr. Arthur Stehly a Catholic, pro-life obstetrician and gynecologist, donated space in his office building for the center, which has been refurbished with donated materials and the labor of several volunteers.

Dr. Nicholas Jauregui, 32, a family medicine practitioner at a community health clinic in Pauma Valley, who works with Dr. Stehly to take care of his obstetrical patients, will lead natural family planning classes at the center.

Writing in the St. Dismas Guild's February newsletter about his conversion to a completely pro-life practice, Jauregui recounted that when he started his medical residency, he "had no difficulty in refusing to perform or refer patients for abortions, but contraception was a different issue for me. I returned home after finishing my training. I found a very holy Benedictine priest to whom I went for spiritual direction. I asked him if it was wrong for me to refer patients for artificial birth control. He answered my question with another question, 'If a patient asked you to refer her to another doctor to give her poison, would you do it?' This holy priest ... helped me to make the final step of becoming a doctor that no longer prescribed or referred my patients for the poison of artificial birth control. I praise God for having changed my heart to be able to see the truth of what the holy Catholic Church has been teaching for years." The Finns and Jauregui explain that teaching NFP classes is a short-term goal of the center. The long-term goal is to provide family medical care, prenatal care, family counseling, NFP courses, Catholic family resources, Catholic teaching on the family, a conference room, bookstore and networking with other culture of life organizations.

Jauregui: "The problem is, right now, the medical community is extremely hostile to this kind of practice of medicine. What happens then? You have someone at the pulpit or a friend telling people to respect life, respect their sexuality in their marriage and think about using NFP. Then they go to the doctor, whom they've depended on for their health care, and their doctor says, 'NFP doesn't work, you should really consider an abortion, you should consider using Depo-Provera, you should consider using the pill.' So a lot that's done on the side of life is undone by their health care providers."

Jauregui's vision for the center's medical services entails having family doctors that provide comprehensive family care and refer to specialists as needed. As the number of medical professionals involved with the center expands, he hopes that the center will be able to refer to specialists who are pro-life. He has registered with One More Soul, a pro-life organization that promotes the full range of Catholic teachings on human life. Jauregui thus anticipates being listed in the next edition of One More Soul's NFP-only directory, a nationwide list of physicians and other health care professionals who promote natural family planning and do not prescribe or refer for any form of contraception or abortion. He described the anti-life pressures facing new doctors: "Physicians coming out of residency training are employed by organizations -- because most of us are not able to just jump out and start our own practice; we don't understand the business enough to do that -- and so what happens is [that] they're, in a sense, forced and pressured to offer contraception, to offer referrals for abortions, because the organizations that they are employed by force them into doing that."

"If you read Physicians Healed [the stories of 15 physicians who stopped prescribing contraceptives], you see that one of their biggest fears was losing their practice. Realistically, what's happened is exactly the opposite. Once these people make that jump [to not prescribing contraceptives], they've actually all done quite well." Deacon Ken added, "It will also encourage the clergy to get the courage to speak from the pulpit, more than what they are right now." Jauregui believes that many physicians and clergymen desire to do the right thing, but refrain from doing so out of fear and weakness. The center, hopes Jauregui, will provide a safe haven for pro-life health providers and "so hopefully this will support all of us, even those of us who are involved in doing this. I mean, we're growing and learning and the Holy Spirit is working on us."

"Our classes will be free, and in English and Spanish, so we're not leaving any population out," Jauregui noted. He explained that low-income patients are "uninsured, they're on Medi-Cal (some of them), they're financially strapped, every dollar makes a big difference. Transportation is a difficulty; it's hard to get them to even drive to wherever this place is where they're going to get this training, so the important thing is removing the barriers that people have in terms of getting the help and developing a culture of life within their families." He described the needs of a typical young couple facing a crisis pregnancy. If they are persuaded not to have an abortion, in addition to medical care for the pregnancy, they will require assistance to rear the child in a culture of life. "That support needs to be reinforced by all the three aspects [physical, emotional and spiritual]," he pointed out. "For the physical, their doctors and nurses need to be helping them along. They need to have education available to them on how to parent, education on how to grow the relationship between husband and wife. You can imagine the ripple effect from that.... I think that once people get a taste of the culture of life, when they get a taste of Christ and what He can do in their life, they want to share that."

Deacon Ken and Marie will head the center's spiritual ministry. Part of their ministry will consist of teaching from their book, Secrets of a Happy Family, a revision and expansion of the Finns' earlier book, God's Divine Order for the Family, published in 1996, which was based on 1 Corinthians 11:3: "I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ; the head of a woman is her husband; and the head of Christ is the Father." Topics such as God's love, the role of the Holy Spirit, the man's role, the woman's role, the couple's role, the parents' role and the children's role are covered in both books.

Ann Marshall, a clinical psychologist in Rancho Bernardo, is providing workshops for the center to support emotional health from the culture of life perspective. Her first offering, "Improving Marital Communication," was given on April 6. For six and a half years Marshall was the weekly, on-air psychologist for the KFMB-TV morning news show, a stint which ended in 1999. Marshall, a member of San Rafael parish, identifies herself as theologically orthodox and loyal to the Church's magisterium. "The whole culture of life concept is very important to me," Marshall stated. "I think the pope is leading us in the direction we need to go, to change the focus to one that's life-affirming.

"Across the board, if you're just picking a name [psychotherapist] out of the phone book, I think, chances are, you would not find someone who's very strong in their faith. I get a lot of referrals from my church because of that, because they know that, if my pastor sends somebody here, they won't be hearing things that contradict what they hear from the Church." At press time the center had four upcoming lectures scheduled, from April through June, on such topics as the meaning of love, child rearing, the man's role in the family and the hazards of contraception (see Dates -- page 14 of this issue -- for more details). The Culture of Life Family Services Center is located at 221 South Grape Street in Escondido, adjacent to the office of Dr. Arthur Stehly, at 211 South Grape. All classes and presentations are free of charge, but require pre-registration. Classes start at 7 p.m. For more information in English or Spanish, call the center at 760-746-4503 or contact the St. Dismas Guild, P.O. Box 2129, Escondido, CA 92033, phone: 760-751-8541, e-mail: bendictus1@aol.com, web site: www.st.dismas.org. The St. Dismas Guild welcomes donations and volunteer assistance.

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