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$Jonathan Roumie tells Father Mike Schmitz: ‘Everything in my life has prepared me for this role’ #Catholic Actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus in “The Chosen,” and Father Mike Schmitz, known for the “Bible in a Year” podcast, sit down for an in-depth interview. Credit: Ascension Presents Dec 29, 2025 / 17:21 pm (CNA). In a new sit-down interview with Father Mike Schmitz, who is best known for the “Bible in a Year” podcast and YouTube videos on Ascension Presents, actor Jonathan Roumie spoke in depth about his role portraying Jesus in the hit series “The Chosen.”“Everything in my life has prepared me for this role,” Roumie told Schmitz in the 43-minute-long interview, which aired Dec. 28 on the Ascension Presents YouTube channel.Looking back at his childhood, Roumie recalled a couple of moments and experiences that deeply impacted him and his own portrayal of Jesus. He said at 12 years old he reenacted Christ’s passion and crucifixion in his backyard after watching Robert Powell’s portrayal of Jesus in “Jesus of Nazareth.”“I had 2-by-8 planks that I found and I hammered them together and I hammered the nails where the hands would go and I painted the blood and the same thing with the feet,” he recalled. “And then I grabbed like a bush, a piece of a branch of a bush, and made my own crown of thorns and I painted blood on it and everything and I processed around to the side of my garage.”Roumie also opened up about his experience being bullied as a child and how it led him to offer up his past trauma to God as he was reenacting the Crucifixion during filming of Season 6 of “The Chosen,” which focuses on Jesus’ passion and crucifixion.“I was bullied as a kid a lot and I had to kind of look at what Jesus went through as a righteous man and a peaceful man and meek and humble and see just the level of devastation and terrorized bullying that he received to the point of death,” he said. “So for me, I think, and I’ll go back and look at all those experiences I had as a kid, which might have been part of the reason that led me to reenact the Passion, as something that I could relate to and I think all of that prepared me for this role.”He added: “I understand it now a bit more, at least I think, in my own sort of human ignorance and pride… Of course I don’t know exactly what all of this is about but it feels authentic. Like, ‘Well, I went through that as a kid and my compassion increased and my empathy increased and now I’m playing the most compassionate, empathetic human being that was God in the universe for all time.’ So I can lend that experience in his suffering and in his empathy even in wanting to forgive his enemies, which I had to do.”“I was beaten pretty bad. So, I had to offer up all of my past trauma to him as I was recreating it, knowing that that was part of my own personal sacrifice — was my own offering for him on behalf of what he suffered for humanity.”The actor shared that before beginning the filming of Season 6, he asked God in prayer that “if it were his will to allow me a fraction of a fraction of what he went through.”Before traveling to Matera, Italy — the location where the Crucifixion was filmed — Roumie injured his right shoulder after falling while filming a scene. An X-ray and MRI showed that he had separated a bit of his AC joint from the clavicle, causing sharp pain.“It was the right shoulder, so the shoulder that was carrying the beam [of the cross] on and it was extremely painful,” Roumie said. “And that was just one of many things.”Roumie added that while filming the Crucifixion “certain adjustments” also had to be made due to pain being felt by the metal and real nails being used during filming.“He [God] gave me exactly what I asked for — just a glimpse, just a glimpse,” he said. “And I think the thing that I got was that I got to enter into it in a way that I had never entered into it before.”Schmitz asked Roumie how his experience portraying Jesus’ passion and crucifixion has impacted the way he attends or prays at Mass. Roumie shared that in the past year he began to feel “convicted to give more reverence to Christ in the Eucharist.”“I started receiving on my knees and on the tongue, which I hadn’t before,” he said, adding that it was slightly “disorienting at first.”He recalled an experience at Mass where he kneeled to receive the Eucharist but the priest asked him to stand up. He hesitated but rose and continued on with the Mass. Afterward, he asked his spiritual director if that was permissible, to which he responded that a priest “shouldn’t do that but it happens.”After this experience, Roumie shared that he “doubled down on it and now I’m prepared to just wait as long as I need to until somebody concedes because I’m not going anywhere.”Returning to his time portraying Jesus in the series, Schmitz told Roumie that “the show is called ‘The Chosen’ in the sense that it’s also about those who were chosen, but you were chosen and there’s something in that that has changed you. You being chosen to not only portray Jesus, but to be his disciple, an imitator of him, as St. Paul says, and that’s changed you.”“That’s something I’m trying to wrap my head around and identify with,” Roumie responded. “It wasn’t somebody else. He picked me. And I, of course, said yes, because I needed the work initially. I didn’t know what it was going to do to me internally.”Once the final season of “The Chosen” airs, it will have been a span of 10 years that Roumie will have been portraying Jesus. He said that this experience is something that might take “the rest of my life to unpack.”There was an error serializing the imagefile_get_contents(https://iframe.ly/api/iframely/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtLHZ1qYhph0&api_key=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found “So, I have to give myself a little bit of grace, but it’s something that I think I will always live with. And in fact, I don’t know that I want to let it go because it keeps me connected to him, especially when the show ends.”$

unitedyam December 29, 2025

Actor Jonathan Roumie, known for his role as Jesus in “The Chosen,” and Father Mike Schmitz, known for the “Bible in a Year” podcast, sit down for an in-depth interview. Credit: Ascension Presents

Dec 29, 2025 / 17:21 pm (CNA).

In a new sit-down interview with Father Mike Schmitz, who is best known for the “Bible in a Year” podcast and YouTube videos on Ascension Presents, actor Jonathan Roumie spoke in depth about his role portraying Jesus in the hit series “The Chosen.”

“Everything in my life has prepared me for this role,” Roumie told Schmitz in the 43-minute-long interview, which aired Dec. 28 on the Ascension Presents YouTube channel.

Looking back at his childhood, Roumie recalled a couple of moments and experiences that deeply impacted him and his own portrayal of Jesus. He said at 12 years old he reenacted Christ’s passion and crucifixion in his backyard after watching Robert Powell’s portrayal of Jesus in “Jesus of Nazareth.”

“I had 2-by-8 planks that I found and I hammered them together and I hammered the nails where the hands would go and I painted the blood and the same thing with the feet,” he recalled. “And then I grabbed like a bush, a piece of a branch of a bush, and made my own crown of thorns and I painted blood on it and everything and I processed around to the side of my garage.”

Roumie also opened up about his experience being bullied as a child and how it led him to offer up his past trauma to God as he was reenacting the Crucifixion during filming of Season 6 of “The Chosen,” which focuses on Jesus’ passion and crucifixion.

“I was bullied as a kid a lot and I had to kind of look at what Jesus went through as a righteous man and a peaceful man and meek and humble and see just the level of devastation and terrorized bullying that he received to the point of death,” he said.

“So for me, I think, and I’ll go back and look at all those experiences I had as a kid, which might have been part of the reason that led me to reenact the Passion, as something that I could relate to and I think all of that prepared me for this role.”

He added: “I understand it now a bit more, at least I think, in my own sort of human ignorance and pride… Of course I don’t know exactly what all of this is about but it feels authentic. Like, ‘Well, I went through that as a kid and my compassion increased and my empathy increased and now I’m playing the most compassionate, empathetic human being that was God in the universe for all time.’ So I can lend that experience in his suffering and in his empathy even in wanting to forgive his enemies, which I had to do.”

“I was beaten pretty bad. So, I had to offer up all of my past trauma to him as I was recreating it, knowing that that was part of my own personal sacrifice — was my own offering for him on behalf of what he suffered for humanity.”

The actor shared that before beginning the filming of Season 6, he asked God in prayer that “if it were his will to allow me a fraction of a fraction of what he went through.”

Before traveling to Matera, Italy — the location where the Crucifixion was filmed — Roumie injured his right shoulder after falling while filming a scene. An X-ray and MRI showed that he had separated a bit of his AC joint from the clavicle, causing sharp pain.

“It was the right shoulder, so the shoulder that was carrying the beam [of the cross] on and it was extremely painful,” Roumie said. “And that was just one of many things.”

Roumie added that while filming the Crucifixion “certain adjustments” also had to be made due to pain being felt by the metal and real nails being used during filming.

“He [God] gave me exactly what I asked for — just a glimpse, just a glimpse,” he said. “And I think the thing that I got was that I got to enter into it in a way that I had never entered into it before.”

Schmitz asked Roumie how his experience portraying Jesus’ passion and crucifixion has impacted the way he attends or prays at Mass. Roumie shared that in the past year he began to feel “convicted to give more reverence to Christ in the Eucharist.”

“I started receiving on my knees and on the tongue, which I hadn’t before,” he said, adding that it was slightly “disorienting at first.”

He recalled an experience at Mass where he kneeled to receive the Eucharist but the priest asked him to stand up. He hesitated but rose and continued on with the Mass. Afterward, he asked his spiritual director if that was permissible, to which he responded that a priest “shouldn’t do that but it happens.”

After this experience, Roumie shared that he “doubled down on it and now I’m prepared to just wait as long as I need to until somebody concedes because I’m not going anywhere.”

Returning to his time portraying Jesus in the series, Schmitz told Roumie that “the show is called ‘The Chosen’ in the sense that it’s also about those who were chosen, but you were chosen and there’s something in that that has changed you. You being chosen to not only portray Jesus, but to be his disciple, an imitator of him, as St. Paul says, and that’s changed you.”

“That’s something I’m trying to wrap my head around and identify with,” Roumie responded. “It wasn’t somebody else. He picked me. And I, of course, said yes, because I needed the work initially. I didn’t know what it was going to do to me internally.”

Once the final season of “The Chosen” airs, it will have been a span of 10 years that Roumie will have been portraying Jesus. He said that this experience is something that might take “the rest of my life to unpack.”

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file_get_contents(https://iframe.ly/api/iframely/oembed?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtLHZ1qYhph0&api_key=): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 404 Not Found

“So, I have to give myself a little bit of grace, but it’s something that I think I will always live with. And in fact, I don’t know that I want to let it go because it keeps me connected to him, especially when the show ends.”

In interview with Bishop Barron, Justice Barrett opens up about her faith #Catholic

Judge Amy Coney Barrett. – Rachel Malehorn/wikimedia CC BY SA 3.0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 26, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says her Catholic faith “grounds her” and gives her “perspective.”During an interview with Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Barrett tackled a number of topics including free speech, the reversal of Roe v. Wade, and her law career. The U.S. Supreme Court justice also opened up about her Catholic faith, including how she prays and her relationship with the saints.A ‘love for the saints’When asked which spiritual figures have influenced her, Barrett shared about her relationships with the saints, specifically her love for St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.“My favorite was Thérèse of Lisieux. We have a daughter named Thérèse,” Barrett said. “I was captivated when I was young by how young she was when she just completely gave her life over to the Lord.”“Her Little Way is so accessible to so many,” she said. “I minored in French and I studied in France. It was actually Lisieux, where I was … that’s where I decided to go that summer. So I spent a lot of time in the gardens of the Martin home. I think those examples of faith were important to me.”“One thing that we’ve tried to do with our children is really cultivate in them a love for the saints, because I do think they are great examples that can inspire our love of the faith.”Barrett said she has “prayed in different ways at different phases” of her life. As a law professor, she often prayed a “ lectio divina.” Now as a judge, she said she tends “to do more reading reflections” and will “read the daily ‘ Magnificat.’”A “personal struggle in these last couple of years has been an ability to quiet my mind so that I can pray in a very deep and focused way,” she said. Listening to reflections “helps me, if my mind is wandering, to be able to focus on reading something and the task at hand.”The Constitution and the common goodDespite her faith, Barrett also discussed how it is not what can influence her decisions as a judge. “The Constitution distributes authority in a particular way,” she said. “The authority that I have is circumscribed.”“I believe in natural law, and I certainly believe in the common good,” Barrett said. “I think legislators have the duty to pursue the common good within the confines of the Constitution and respect for religious freedom.”“You have to imagine, ‘What if I didn’t like the composition of the court I was in front of, the court that was making these decisions, and they view the common good quite differently than I do?’ That’s the reason why we have a document like the Constitution, because it’s a point of consensus and common ground.”“And if we start veering away from that and reading into it our own individual ideas of the common good, it’s going to go nowhere good fast.”Roe v. WadeBarrett said both people who agreed with the Dobbs decision and those who did not “may well assume” she cast her vote based on her “faith” and “personal views about abortion.”“But especially given the framework with which I view the Constitution, there are plenty of people who support abortion rights but who recognize that Roe was ill-reasoned and inconsistent with the Constitution itself,” she said.Barrett further discussed “the trouble with Roe.”“There’s nothing in the Constitution … that speaks to abortion, that speaks to medical procedures,” she said. “The best defense of Roe, the commonly thought defense of Roe, was that it was grounded in the word ‘liberty’ and the due process clause, that we protect life, liberty, and property and it can’t be taken away without due process of law.”The “word ‘liberty’ can’t be an open vessel or an empty vessel in which judges can just read into it whatever rights they want, because otherwise, we lose the democracy in our democratic society,” Barrett said.The problem with Roe “is that it was a free-floating, free-wheeling decision that read into the Constitution.”The reason why it’s difficult to amend the Constitution is because “it reflects a super-majority consensus,” she said. “The rights that are protected in the Constitution, as well as the structural guarantees that are made in that Constitution, are not of my making. They are ones that Americans have agreed to.”“Roe told Americans what they should agree to rather than what they have already agreed to in the Constitution.”Free speech and freedom of religion“I think the First Amendment protects, guarantees, forces us to respect one another and to respect disagreement,” Barrett said. “There’s a tolerance of different faiths, a tolerance of different ideas … we can see what would happen if you didn’t have the guarantee to hold that in place.”“Think about what’s happening with respect to free speech rights in the U.K.,” Barrett said. “Contrary opinions or opinions that are not in the mainstream are not being tolerated, and they’re even being criminalized. Because of the First Amendment, that can’t happen here.”If the United States were to have “an established religion, then it would be very difficult to simultaneously guarantee freedom of religion because there would be one voice with which the government was speaking,” Barrett explained.An established religion would “sacrifice the religious liberty,” she said. “But by the same token, the religious liberty, it would become self-defeating if the logical end to it was to force everyone to see things your way.”DiscernmentAt the end of the conversation, Barron asked Barrett what advice she would give young Catholics who want to be involved in public life, law, or the government.“Discern first,” Barrett said. Ask: “What are you called to do?”“If you do feel like this is a vocation and something you’re called to do, I think it can never be the most important thing,” Barrett said. “I think being grounded in your faith and who you are and being right in the Lord, so that you’re not tossed like a ship everywhere because there are enormous pressures.”Faith “grounds me as a person,” Barrett said. “Not because my faith informs the substance of the decisions that I make, it emphatically does not, but I think it grounds me as a person. It’s who I am as a person.”“So it’s what enables me to keep my job in public life in perspective and remain the person who I am and continue to try to be the person I hope to be despite the pressures of public life,” she said.

unitedyam December 26, 2025

Judge Amy Coney Barrett. – Rachel Malehorn/wikimedia CC BY SA 3.0

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Dec 26, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett says her Catholic faith “grounds her” and gives her “perspective.”

During an interview with Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Barrett tackled a number of topics including free speech, the reversal of Roe v. Wade, and her law career. The U.S. Supreme Court justice also opened up about her Catholic faith, including how she prays and her relationship with the saints.

A ‘love for the saints’

When asked which spiritual figures have influenced her, Barrett shared about her relationships with the saints, specifically her love for St. Catherine of Siena and St. Thérèse of Lisieux.

“My favorite was Thérèse of Lisieux. We have a daughter named Thérèse,” Barrett said. “I was captivated when I was young by how young she was when she just completely gave her life over to the Lord.”

“Her Little Way is so accessible to so many,” she said. “I minored in French and I studied in France. It was actually Lisieux, where I was … that’s where I decided to go that summer. So I spent a lot of time in the gardens of the Martin home. I think those examples of faith were important to me.”

“One thing that we’ve tried to do with our children is really cultivate in them a love for the saints, because I do think they are great examples that can inspire our love of the faith.”

Barrett said she has “prayed in different ways at different phases” of her life. As a law professor, she often prayed a “ lectio divina.” Now as a judge, she said she tends “to do more reading reflections” and will “read the daily ‘ Magnificat.’”

A “personal struggle in these last couple of years has been an ability to quiet my mind so that I can pray in a very deep and focused way,” she said. Listening to reflections “helps me, if my mind is wandering, to be able to focus on reading something and the task at hand.”

The Constitution and the common good

Despite her faith, Barrett also discussed how it is not what can influence her decisions as a judge. “The Constitution distributes authority in a particular way,” she said. “The authority that I have is circumscribed.”

“I believe in natural law, and I certainly believe in the common good,” Barrett said. “I think legislators have the duty to pursue the common good within the confines of the Constitution and respect for religious freedom.”

“You have to imagine, ‘What if I didn’t like the composition of the court I was in front of, the court that was making these decisions, and they view the common good quite differently than I do?’ That’s the reason why we have a document like the Constitution, because it’s a point of consensus and common ground.”

“And if we start veering away from that and reading into it our own individual ideas of the common good, it’s going to go nowhere good fast.”

Roe v. Wade

Barrett said both people who agreed with the Dobbs decision and those who did not “may well assume” she cast her vote based on her “faith” and “personal views about abortion.”

“But especially given the framework with which I view the Constitution, there are plenty of people who support abortion rights but who recognize that Roe was ill-reasoned and inconsistent with the Constitution itself,” she said.

Barrett further discussed “the trouble with Roe.”

“There’s nothing in the Constitution … that speaks to abortion, that speaks to medical procedures,” she said. “The best defense of Roe, the commonly thought defense of Roe, was that it was grounded in the word ‘liberty’ and the due process clause, that we protect life, liberty, and property and it can’t be taken away without due process of law.”

The “word ‘liberty’ can’t be an open vessel or an empty vessel in which judges can just read into it whatever rights they want, because otherwise, we lose the democracy in our democratic society,” Barrett said.

The problem with Roe “is that it was a free-floating, free-wheeling decision that read into the Constitution.”

The reason why it’s difficult to amend the Constitution is because “it reflects a super-majority consensus,” she said. “The rights that are protected in the Constitution, as well as the structural guarantees that are made in that Constitution, are not of my making. They are ones that Americans have agreed to.”

“Roe told Americans what they should agree to rather than what they have already agreed to in the Constitution.”

Free speech and freedom of religion

“I think the First Amendment protects, guarantees, forces us to respect one another and to respect disagreement,” Barrett said. “There’s a tolerance of different faiths, a tolerance of different ideas … we can see what would happen if you didn’t have the guarantee to hold that in place.”

“Think about what’s happening with respect to free speech rights in the U.K.,” Barrett said. “Contrary opinions or opinions that are not in the mainstream are not being tolerated, and they’re even being criminalized. Because of the First Amendment, that can’t happen here.”

If the United States were to have “an established religion, then it would be very difficult to simultaneously guarantee freedom of religion because there would be one voice with which the government was speaking,” Barrett explained.

An established religion would “sacrifice the religious liberty,” she said. “But by the same token, the religious liberty, it would become self-defeating if the logical end to it was to force everyone to see things your way.”

Discernment

At the end of the conversation, Barron asked Barrett what advice she would give young Catholics who want to be involved in public life, law, or the government.

“Discern first,” Barrett said. Ask: “What are you called to do?”

“If you do feel like this is a vocation and something you’re called to do, I think it can never be the most important thing,” Barrett said. “I think being grounded in your faith and who you are and being right in the Lord, so that you’re not tossed like a ship everywhere because there are enormous pressures.”

Faith “grounds me as a person,” Barrett said. “Not because my faith informs the substance of the decisions that I make, it emphatically does not, but I think it grounds me as a person. It’s who I am as a person.”

“So it’s what enables me to keep my job in public life in perspective and remain the person who I am and continue to try to be the person I hope to be despite the pressures of public life,” she said.

CNA explains: What is natural family planning? #Catholic

Credit: Chinnapong/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).
In an era when artificial contraception often dominates public discussions on family planning, the Catholic Church continues to champion natural family planning (NFP). Far from merely another birth control technique, NFP invites couples to cooperate with God’s plan for married love, which “is a ‘great mystery,’ a sign of the love between Christ and his Church (Eph 5:32),” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). NFP — also known as a fertility awareness-based method (FABM) — relies on observing and measuring a woman’s natural signs of fertility, such as basal body temperature, cervical mucus, and hormone levels, in order to identify fertile and infertile phases of her menstrual cycle. Unlike chemical or mechanical contraceptives, which suppress or block fertility, NFP respects the woman’s body and its natural rhythms and allows spouses to achieve or postpone pregnancy, after mutual discernment, through informed abstinence during fertile windows. Most importantly, NFP honors the sacredness of the unitive and procreative aspects of the conjugal act, which the Church teaches must always be a total gift of self between the spouses and open to the gift of new human life. “Suppressing fertility by using contraception denies part of the inherent meaning of married sexuality and does harm to the couple’s unity,” according to the USCCB. “The total giving of oneself, body and soul, to one’s beloved is no time to say: ‘I give you everything I am — except…’ The Church’s teaching is not only about observing a rule but about preserving that total, mutual gift of two persons in its integrity.”In his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, St. Paul VI affirmed that couples may space births for serious reasons, using natural methods that honor the “inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meanings” of the marital act. The USCCB explains that “NFP is not a contraceptive, it does nothing to suppress or block conception.”“On the surface, there may seem to be little difference (between NFP and contraception),” according to the bishops. “But the end result is not the only thing that matters, and the way we get to that result may make an enormous moral difference. Some ways respect God’s gifts to us while others do not.”The bishops continue: “When couples use contraception, either physical or chemical, they suppress their fertility, asserting that they alone have ultimate control over this power to create a new human life. With NFP, spouses respect God’s design for life and love. They may choose to refrain from sexual union during the woman’s fertile time, doing nothing to destroy the love-giving or life-giving meaning that is present. This is the difference between choosing to falsify the full marital language of the body and choosing at certain times not to speak that language.”The practice of NFP traces its modern roots to the mid-20th century, evolving from early, relatively unreliable calendar-based methods in the 1930s to the smartphone app-based approaches of today. Common methods include the Billings Ovulation Method, which tracks cervical mucus changes, and sympto-thermal methods, which combine the charting of mucus observations, temperature shifts, and cervical changes. The Marquette Model uses “several different biomarker devices to detect urinary biomarkers (estrogen, LH, and progesterone),” according to its website.Per USCCB data, NFP, with perfect use, yields 88% to 100% effectiveness in avoiding pregnancy, with imperfect use at 70% to 98%. For couples trying to achieve pregnancy, it typically occurs in about one year for approximately 85% of couples not using NFP, and within three to six months for those who are. Pope Francis praised the Billings method in 2023 as “a valuable tool” for “responsible management of procreative choices,” urging a “new revolution in our way of thinking” to value the body’s “great book of nature.” He noted its simplicity amid a “contraceptive culture,” promoting tenderness between the spouses and an authentic freedom.Beyond efficacy at planning, preventing, or postponing pregnancy in a morally licit way, couples who use NFP acknowledge that it can be difficult but say it builds intimacy and improves communication as well as self-mastery, transforming what can be otherwise difficult times of periodic abstinence into opportunities for deeper intimacy.Jessica Vanderhyde, a nurse and mother of seven who is using the Marquette method because she and her husband do not feel ready to welcome another child, told CNA that while NFP can be frustrating because of the periods of abstinence it requires, it also “leads to a lot more closeness in the marriage.”“If it’s been a long period of abstinence, we try to come up with other ways to be close. I need to make sure I’m more affectionate with him because sexual intimacy is one of the primary ways he feels I love him. If that can’t happen, I have to be conscious of that,” she said.“We have become good at taking each other’s feelings and needs into consideration. I work at providing what he needs as much as I can.”Vanderhyde also noted how charting symptoms can bring the couple closer as it allows the husband to really appreciate his wife’s body as well as her needs.“The husband should be involved in the tracking of it,” she continued, “so that he fully participates in the process and doesn’t feel like he’s at the whims of his wife’s moods.”She said it can also reveal underlying health issues like infertility or hormonal imbalances, which artificial forms of birth control can mask.

unitedyam December 20, 2025

Credit: Chinnapong/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Dec 20, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

In an era when artificial contraception often dominates public discussions on family planning, the Catholic Church continues to champion natural family planning (NFP).

Far from merely another birth control technique, NFP invites couples to cooperate with God’s plan for married love, which “is a ‘great mystery,’ a sign of the love between Christ and his Church (Eph 5:32),” according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

NFP — also known as a fertility awareness-based method (FABM) — relies on observing and measuring a woman’s natural signs of fertility, such as basal body temperature, cervical mucus, and hormone levels, in order to identify fertile and infertile phases of her menstrual cycle.

Unlike chemical or mechanical contraceptives, which suppress or block fertility, NFP respects the woman’s body and its natural rhythms and allows spouses to achieve or postpone pregnancy, after mutual discernment, through informed abstinence during fertile windows.

Most importantly, NFP honors the sacredness of the unitive and procreative aspects of the conjugal act, which the Church teaches must always be a total gift of self between the spouses and open to the gift of new human life.

“Suppressing fertility by using contraception denies part of the inherent meaning of married sexuality and does harm to the couple’s unity,” according to the USCCB. “The total giving of oneself, body and soul, to one’s beloved is no time to say: ‘I give you everything I am — except…’ The Church’s teaching is not only about observing a rule but about preserving that total, mutual gift of two persons in its integrity.”

In his 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae, St. Paul VI affirmed that couples may space births for serious reasons, using natural methods that honor the “inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meanings” of the marital act.

The USCCB explains that “NFP is not a contraceptive, it does nothing to suppress or block conception.”

“On the surface, there may seem to be little difference (between NFP and contraception),” according to the bishops. “But the end result is not the only thing that matters, and the way we get to that result may make an enormous moral difference. Some ways respect God’s gifts to us while others do not.”

The bishops continue: “When couples use contraception, either physical or chemical, they suppress their fertility, asserting that they alone have ultimate control over this power to create a new human life. With NFP, spouses respect God’s design for life and love. They may choose to refrain from sexual union during the woman’s fertile time, doing nothing to destroy the love-giving or life-giving meaning that is present. This is the difference between choosing to falsify the full marital language of the body and choosing at certain times not to speak that language.”

The practice of NFP traces its modern roots to the mid-20th century, evolving from early, relatively unreliable calendar-based methods in the 1930s to the smartphone app-based approaches of today.

Common methods include the Billings Ovulation Method, which tracks cervical mucus changes, and sympto-thermal methods, which combine the charting of mucus observations, temperature shifts, and cervical changes. The Marquette Model uses “several different biomarker devices to detect urinary biomarkers (estrogen, LH, and progesterone),” according to its website.

Per USCCB data, NFP, with perfect use, yields 88% to 100% effectiveness in avoiding pregnancy, with imperfect use at 70% to 98%. For couples trying to achieve pregnancy, it typically occurs in about one year for approximately 85% of couples not using NFP, and within three to six months for those who are.

Pope Francis praised the Billings method in 2023 as “a valuable tool” for “responsible management of procreative choices,” urging a “new revolution in our way of thinking” to value the body’s “great book of nature.” He noted its simplicity amid a “contraceptive culture,” promoting tenderness between the spouses and an authentic freedom.

Beyond efficacy at planning, preventing, or postponing pregnancy in a morally licit way, couples who use NFP acknowledge that it can be difficult but say it builds intimacy and improves communication as well as self-mastery, transforming what can be otherwise difficult times of periodic abstinence into opportunities for deeper intimacy.

Jessica Vanderhyde, a nurse and mother of seven who is using the Marquette method because she and her husband do not feel ready to welcome another child, told CNA that while NFP can be frustrating because of the periods of abstinence it requires, it also “leads to a lot more closeness in the marriage.”

“If it’s been a long period of abstinence, we try to come up with other ways to be close. I need to make sure I’m more affectionate with him because sexual intimacy is one of the primary ways he feels I love him. If that can’t happen, I have to be conscious of that,” she said.

“We have become good at taking each other’s feelings and needs into consideration. I work at providing what he needs as much as I can.”

Vanderhyde also noted how charting symptoms can bring the couple closer as it allows the husband to really appreciate his wife’s body as well as her needs.

“The husband should be involved in the tracking of it,” she continued, “so that he fully participates in the process and doesn’t feel like he’s at the whims of his wife’s moods.”

She said it can also reveal underlying health issues like infertility or hormonal imbalances, which artificial forms of birth control can mask.

At abortion facilities across the nation, carolers bring tidings of life #Catholic

Carolers outside Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois, on Dec. 13, 2025. / Credit: John Jansen/Courtesy of the Pro-Life Action League

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).
When a pregnant woman at an abortion facility heard distant carolers singing “Silent Night,” she got up and left.The mother, back in 2003, decided to keep her baby after a pro-life group’s first Christmas caroling event outside a Chicago abortion clinic struck her heart.“The memories of Christmases past stirred in her and she decided she couldn’t go through with the abortion and kept her child,” said Matthew Yonke, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, the group that coordinates these events. She would be the first of many women who chose life after hearing carols. Now, the tradition extends across the nation — and babies continue to be saved. As Christmas Day approaches, nearly 100 caroling groups across the U.S. are gathering at various abortion facilities to sing. Through the nationwide “Peace in the Womb” caroling effort, the group hopes “to bring the Christmas message of peace and joy to the darkness of abortion clinics,” according to a press release shared with CNA. It’s a “simple call for an end to the violence of abortion,” according to Yonke.“At the time of Christmas, the whole world tries to put aside differences and pursue peace, so we’re asking folks to make a connection to the womb, which should be a place of peace, but which is turned into a place of violent unrest in every abortion,” Yonke continued.A caroler holds artwork of Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus, at a caroling event outside a Cedar Rivers abortion facility in Renton, Washington, on Dec. 14, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Richard BraySaving lives The carolers had already packed up after singing their final song outside an abortion site when a couple approached the remaining pro-lifers in Downers Grove, Illinois, on Dec. 13. The couple, Yonke said, “told the sidewalk counselors still there that they had decided to keep their baby after hearing our carols.” “Stories like this go all the way back to the first year,” Yonke said. “We’re thrilled when God can use these beloved songs that touch the hearts of even non-Christians to do his work in the world.”This was one of two rescue stories so far this December that the league heard about, according to Yonke. “Please don’t kill your baby at Christmas,” one caroler called out to a young woman in the back seat of a car that was driving into an abortion clinic.Carolers outside of Planned Parenthood in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 13, 2025. Credit: Cecile Gregory/Courtesy of the Pro-Life Action LeagueIt was a Saturday in Milwaukee, and a group of carolers had gathered to sing outside the abortion clinic on St. Paul Avenue. The car drove into the abortion center parking lot. But minutes later, the car turned around with the young woman still in the back seat — she never even entered the abortion clinic. Salvation came through an unplanned pregnancyPro-Life Action League invites local pro-lifers to work with them to organize their own caroling groups. On Sunday, Dec. 14, one such caroling group sang outside an abortion facility in Renton, Washington. “This was a fantastic event and I think every Catholic church should do this in their community,” said local pro-life activist Richard Bray, who organized the caroling with the Respect Life Ministry at a local Catholic parish, St. Stephen the Martyr.While every event organized with the league has a “Peace in the Womb” banner, Renton’s organizer would have something special — a handmade manger. An 88-year-old parishioner at St. Stephen’s built an empty manger that the carolers brought to the event, according to Bray. Manger made by an 88-year-old parishioner of St. Stephen’s in Renton, Washington. Carolers brought the empty manger to the caroling event on Dec. 14, 2025, as a sign of what an abortion does and the empty space it leaves. Credit: Photo courtesy of Richard BrayThe empty manger not only symbolizes that Christ is coming at Christmas — but it also represents how a crib is empty after an abortion, according to Bray.“It’s particularly sad to think of someone getting an abortion during the Christmas season,” Bray told CNA. “So we gather to sing carols and remind abortion-bound mothers and our community that the salvation of the world came through an unplanned pregnancy.”

unitedyam December 17, 2025

Carolers outside Planned Parenthood in Aurora, Illinois, on Dec. 13, 2025. / Credit: John Jansen/Courtesy of the Pro-Life Action League

CNA Staff, Dec 17, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

When a pregnant woman at an abortion facility heard distant carolers singing “Silent Night,” she got up and left.

The mother, back in 2003, decided to keep her baby after a pro-life group’s first Christmas caroling event outside a Chicago abortion clinic struck her heart.

“The memories of Christmases past stirred in her and she decided she couldn’t go through with the abortion and kept her child,” said Matthew Yonke, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Action League, the group that coordinates these events.

She would be the first of many women who chose life after hearing carols. Now, the tradition extends across the nation — and babies continue to be saved.

As Christmas Day approaches, nearly 100 caroling groups across the U.S. are gathering at various abortion facilities to sing.

Through the nationwide “Peace in the Womb” caroling effort, the group hopes “to bring the Christmas message of peace and joy to the darkness of abortion clinics,” according to a press release shared with CNA.

It’s a “simple call for an end to the violence of abortion,” according to Yonke.

“At the time of Christmas, the whole world tries to put aside differences and pursue peace, so we’re asking folks to make a connection to the womb, which should be a place of peace, but which is turned into a place of violent unrest in every abortion,” Yonke continued.

A caroler holds artwork of Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus, at a caroling event outside a Cedar Rivers abortion facility in Renton, Washington, on Dec. 14, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Richard Bray

Saving lives

The carolers had already packed up after singing their final song outside an abortion site when a couple approached the remaining pro-lifers in Downers Grove, Illinois, on Dec. 13.

The couple, Yonke said, “told the sidewalk counselors still there that they had decided to keep their baby after hearing our carols.”

“Stories like this go all the way back to the first year,” Yonke said. “We’re thrilled when God can use these beloved songs that touch the hearts of even non-Christians to do his work in the world.”

This was one of two rescue stories so far this December that the league heard about, according to Yonke.

“Please don’t kill your baby at Christmas,” one caroler called out to a young woman in the back seat of a car that was driving into an abortion clinic.

Carolers outside of Planned Parenthood in Madison, Wisconsin, on Dec. 13, 2025. Credit: Cecile Gregory/Courtesy of the Pro-Life Action League

It was a Saturday in Milwaukee, and a group of carolers had gathered to sing outside the abortion clinic on St. Paul Avenue.

The car drove into the abortion center parking lot. But minutes later, the car turned around with the young woman still in the back seat — she never even entered the abortion clinic.

Salvation came through an unplanned pregnancy

Pro-Life Action League invites local pro-lifers to work with them to organize their own caroling groups.

On Sunday, Dec. 14, one such caroling group sang outside an abortion facility in Renton, Washington.

“This was a fantastic event and I think every Catholic church should do this in their community,” said local pro-life activist Richard Bray, who organized the caroling with the Respect Life Ministry at a local Catholic parish, St. Stephen the Martyr.

While every event organized with the league has a “Peace in the Womb” banner, Renton’s organizer would have something special — a handmade manger.

An 88-year-old parishioner at St. Stephen’s built an empty manger that the carolers brought to the event, according to Bray.

Manger made by an 88-year-old parishioner of St. Stephen’s in Renton, Washington. Carolers brought the empty manger to the caroling event on Dec. 14, 2025, as a sign of what an abortion does and the empty space it leaves. Credit: Photo courtesy of Richard Bray

The empty manger not only symbolizes that Christ is coming at Christmas — but it also represents how a crib is empty after an abortion, according to Bray.

“It’s particularly sad to think of someone getting an abortion during the Christmas season,” Bray told CNA. “So we gather to sing carols and remind abortion-bound mothers and our community that the salvation of the world came through an unplanned pregnancy.”

unitedyam December 13, 2025

Father Richard Reiser, an iconographer based in Omaha, Nebraska, writes an icon of St. Bridget of Sweden with her family for FOCCUS Marriage Ministries’ 40th anniversary. / Credit: Photo courtesy of FOCCUS

CNA Staff, Dec 13, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

When an iconographer began his work on a unique icon, he looked to the bones of the saint’s husband for help.

FOCCUS Marriage Ministries, a Catholic marriage ministry, invited the priest-iconographer Father Richard Reiser to make an icon of St. Bridget of Sweden, a mystic and the mother of eight. The ministry is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and chose St. Bridget to be the patron saint of its work.

But there was one challenge. According to Reiser, historically there is no established iconographic prototype of an icon of St. Bridget of Sweden.

So using his imagination and every historical source available — including the bones of St. Bridget’s husband — the priest developed an entirely new icon of a saint who has gone without an icon for hundreds of years.

The domestic church

“For me, iconography is first and foremost a form of prayer,” Reiser said. “The entire creative process is an act of listening to God and allowing the sacred story of a saint or mystery to take shape through layers of contemplation, color, and symbolism.”

The end result was an icon ripe with symbolic meaning — at its heart, marriage and family.

At the blessing ceremony of the icon are (left to right): FOCCUS Director of Ministry Father Michael Grewe, Archbishop Michael McGovern of Omaha, FOCCUS Executive Director Sheila Simpson, and Iconographer Father Richard Reiser. Credit: Photo courtesy of FOCCUS

FOCCUS Marriage Ministries chose St. Bridget of Sweden to be its patron because of her commitment to marriage and the Church.

St. Bridget’s life “beautifully reflects the heart of marriage ministry,” Sheila Simpson, who heads the archdiocese-owned nonprofit, told CNA.

Now displayed in the hallway of the FOCCUS office in the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, the icon contains a quote from Pope Benedict XVI about the family as the domestic church as well as several symbols of the married couple’s life together.

“The icon quietly teaches that marriage is both a covenant of grace and a living witness to the Gospel,” Reiser told CNA.

With St. Bridget as its guiding light, FOCCUS is launching resources for couples whose marriages have unusual challenges, such as those who need their marriage convalidated by the Church, as well as those marrying later in life.

FOCCUS is most well known for its inventories — questionnaires designed to help engaged couples prepare for marriage by initiating conversations about issues like finance and values. The additional, new questionnaires will have questions tailored for couples in unusual situations, including military couples, first responders, and deacons.

Simpson said many couples say FOCCUS “became a turning point — not because it told them what to do, but because it helped them truly hear each other.”

Windows into the divine

Reiser said that one of the most “fascinating” parts of the icon-making process was consulting the bones of Ulf Gudmarsson, the husband of St. Bridget.

“His bones indicated that he was significantly larger in stature than she was,” he said.

“To honor historical accuracy while still emphasizing Bridget’s spiritual prominence, I placed her on a small set of steps so she would remain the central figure of the composition,” he explained.

Icons are “created for contemplation and spiritual truth more than realism,” Reiser said.

“They are windows into the divine — visual theology meant to open the heart and mind to God’s presence,” he continued.

“They participate in the mystery of the Incarnation,” Reiser said. “The eternal Word of God takes visible form.”

The icon depicts an emblem of the Third Order Franciscans, which the couple joined after they got married.

In addition, Gudmarsson holds a staff with a shell, referencing the pilgrimage the couple took to northwestern Spain.

It would be the last pilgrimage the couple ever made together. On the return journey from the pilgrimage, Gudmarsson grew ill and died soon after they returned to Sweden.

As a widow, St. Bridget dedicated her life to Christ, founding the religious order now known as the Bridgettines, which still exists to this day.

The icon of St. Bridget of Sweden and her family by Father Richard Reiser contains many symbols, such as the staff and shell, the 15 florets, and the clasp of St. Bridget’s cloak. Framing the icon are words from Pope Benedict XVI on the domestic church. Credit: Courtesy of FOCCUS

An icon of family and unity

Iconographers don’t paint — they write.

“Every line, color, and gesture carries symbolic meaning,” Reiser said. “That is why we often say icons are ‘written’ rather than painted.”

For instance, the 15 florets below St. Bridget of Sweden reference her 15 meditations on Christ’s passion. The cloak she wears has a brooch styled to symbolize the five wounds of Christ. Within the brooch is a relic of St. Bridget.

“Writing the icon of St. Bridget of Sweden was a unique and grace-filled experience because, historically, there is no established iconographic prototype of her — especially not one depicting her with her family,” Reiser said. “Without a traditional image to follow, I drew from existing paintings of St. Bridget and shaped them within the contemplative, dignified structure of classical iconography.”

With “no established icon tradition for Bridget’s family,” Reiser said he “consulted other family-centered icons, especially images of Christ with children, to discern how to portray children in an authentically iconographic style.”

The paintings of the children visually form a circle, which Reiser said represents the unity of the family. One of the children, Ingeborg, holds bluebells, the national flower of St. Bridget’s homeland, Sweden.

“Each of these details helps the icon speak not just as artwork but as a theological meditation on the holiness of family life,” Reiser said.

St. Gianna Molla award to go to Catholic father, farmer, potential saint #Catholic

Tom Vander Woude with baby Joseph “Josie” Vander Woude. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Tom Vander Woude Guild

CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).
When Virginia father Tom Vander Woude’s 19-year-old son, a boy with Down syndrome, fell into a toxic sewage tank, Tom jumped into the tank with him, pushing him to the surface even as the toxic fumes filled his own lungs.The father of seven, whose sainthood cause is now under investigation, will be posthumously awarded this year’s Walk for Life “Saint Gianna Molla Award for Pro-Life Heroism” on Jan. 24, 2026 at the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco. “When we heard Tom’s story years ago, we were touched by the love of a father for his child,” Dolores Meehan, co-chair of the West Coast Walk for Life, told CNA. “The fact that his son has Down syndrome made it all the more important to share his story of love and sacrifice and joy.”Unborn children with Down syndrome often become victims of abortion.The award named for St. Gianna Molla — an Italian doctor who chose to carry her child to term after a cancer diagnosis at the cost of her own life — honors those who show “heroic virtue in the defense of the unborn and their mothers and fathers, usually to the extent of profound sacrifice,” according to Meehan.Chris Vander Woude, who is travelling the U.S. and promoting his father’s cause, told CNA that “Dad was deeply committed to honoring and safeguarding the sanctity of human life.” “He lived by these values right up to his last breath when he saved my brother Joseph’s life,” said Vander Woude. “Following St. Gianna’s example, Dad selflessly gave his life out of love for his child.” “In a world that often devalues people with Down Syndrome, Dad’s final act of love for my brother serves as a powerful testament to the sanctity and dignity of every human life,” Vander Woude continued. Openness to life “I don’t think Dad ever missed a March for Life,” Chris said. “It didn’t matter if it was snowing or super cold, Dad would take as many family members as possible because he understood the importance of standing up for innocent unborn babies and their right to life.” Tom, who worked as a farmer and a commercial pilot, made time for his family, faith, and pro-life beliefs. Held in late January, the March for Life is the pro-life movement’s annual march in Washington, D.C. to oppose abortion and defend human life. Tom and his wife also frequently prayed the Rosary outside of an abortion clinic that has since closed and is now a life-affirming medical clinic that serves women in need, according to Vander Woude. Tom and his wife also taught Natural Family Planning (NFP), a life-affirming fertility-awareness method of family planning, to young couples. “He and Mom were always open to life in their marriage,” Vander Woude said. “Dad believed in the age-old saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and he was quick to do his part in ‘the village’ to help,”“They had many reasons not to have a large family, but they chose the courageous path of faith, hope, and openness to God’s will,” Chris said. When a woman tracks her cycle using an NFP method, NFP works with her fertility rather than against it. Because various NFP methods don’t obstruct conception like contraception does, the Catholic Church accepts it as a form of family planning that is open to life. Bob and Karen Fioramonti still remember going to NFP classes with the Vander Woude’s in the early 1990s as a young married couple. “We learned about NFP, but we learned even more about what it looked like to be a faithful couple who had been open to life,” Karen Fioramonti told CNA. “At that point, neither of us knew any big families and the Vander Woude’s were a joyful couple raising seven sons encouraging us to trust God’s plan for our family,” said Karen Fioramonti. “They shared what a blessing each child is and that a parents’ mission is to raise saints. In short, they shared their faith.”“Years later, we have raised our own seven sons and two daughters, and we are so grateful for that message shared many years ago,” Bob Fioramonti said. A pro-life hero As Vander Woude has been sharing the story of his father’s self-sacrifice with parishes around the U.S., he has seen how his father’s story moves people of all ages. “I’ve seen the story move people to tears and motivate them to follow Dad’s sacrificial example,” Vander Woude said. Meehan said that she hopes Tom Vander Woude’s story will inspire men to take up the pro-life mantle. “Men are so in need of heroes,” said Meehan. “Our hope is that the men who hear his story will be encouraged, inspired, and motivated to emulate not just his final act of sacrifice, but his life of sacrifice and the joy he derived from his pro-life heart.” “Men need to hear that they, too, can be the pro-life hero to their family — to step up and be present day in and day out,” Meehan said.

unitedyam December 11, 2025

Tom Vander Woude with baby Joseph “Josie” Vander Woude. / Credit: Photo courtesy of the Tom Vander Woude Guild

CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2025 / 09:30 am (CNA).

When Virginia father Tom Vander Woude’s 19-year-old son, a boy with Down syndrome, fell into a toxic sewage tank, Tom jumped into the tank with him, pushing him to the surface even as the toxic fumes filled his own lungs.

The father of seven, whose sainthood cause is now under investigation, will be posthumously awarded this year’s Walk for Life “Saint Gianna Molla Award for Pro-Life Heroism” on Jan. 24, 2026 at the West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco.

“When we heard Tom’s story years ago, we were touched by the love of a father for his child,” Dolores Meehan, co-chair of the West Coast Walk for Life, told CNA. “The fact that his son has Down syndrome made it all the more important to share his story of love and sacrifice and joy.”

Unborn children with Down syndrome often become victims of abortion.

The award named for St. Gianna Molla — an Italian doctor who chose to carry her child to term after a cancer diagnosis at the cost of her own life — honors those who show “heroic virtue in the defense of the unborn and their mothers and fathers, usually to the extent of profound sacrifice,” according to Meehan.

Chris Vander Woude, who is travelling the U.S. and promoting his father’s cause, told CNA that “Dad was deeply committed to honoring and safeguarding the sanctity of human life.”

“He lived by these values right up to his last breath when he saved my brother Joseph’s life,” said Vander Woude. “Following St. Gianna’s example, Dad selflessly gave his life out of love for his child.”

“In a world that often devalues people with Down Syndrome, Dad’s final act of love for my brother serves as a powerful testament to the sanctity and dignity of every human life,” Vander Woude continued.

Openness to life

“I don’t think Dad ever missed a March for Life,” Chris said. “It didn’t matter if it was snowing or super cold, Dad would take as many family members as possible because he understood the importance of standing up for innocent unborn babies and their right to life.”

Tom, who worked as a farmer and a commercial pilot, made time for his family, faith, and pro-life beliefs.

Held in late January, the March for Life is the pro-life movement’s annual march in Washington, D.C. to oppose abortion and defend human life.

Tom and his wife also frequently prayed the Rosary outside of an abortion clinic that has since closed and is now a life-affirming medical clinic that serves women in need, according to Vander Woude.

Tom and his wife also taught Natural Family Planning (NFP), a life-affirming fertility-awareness method of family planning, to young couples.

“He and Mom were always open to life in their marriage,” Vander Woude said. “Dad believed in the age-old saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ and he was quick to do his part in ‘the village’ to help,”

“They had many reasons not to have a large family, but they chose the courageous path of faith, hope, and openness to God’s will,” Chris said.

When a woman tracks her cycle using an NFP method, NFP works with her fertility rather than against it. Because various NFP methods don’t obstruct conception like contraception does, the Catholic Church accepts it as a form of family planning that is open to life.

Bob and Karen Fioramonti still remember going to NFP classes with the Vander Woude’s in the early 1990s as a young married couple.

“We learned about NFP, but we learned even more about what it looked like to be a faithful couple who had been open to life,” Karen Fioramonti told CNA.

“At that point, neither of us knew any big families and the Vander Woude’s were a joyful couple raising seven sons encouraging us to trust God’s plan for our family,” said Karen Fioramonti. “They shared what a blessing each child is and that a parents’ mission is to raise saints. In short, they shared their faith.”

“Years later, we have raised our own seven sons and two daughters, and we are so grateful for that message shared many years ago,” Bob Fioramonti said.

A pro-life hero

As Vander Woude has been sharing the story of his father’s self-sacrifice with parishes around the U.S., he has seen how his father’s story moves people of all ages.

“I’ve seen the story move people to tears and motivate them to follow Dad’s sacrificial example,” Vander Woude said.

Meehan said that she hopes Tom Vander Woude’s story will inspire men to take up the pro-life mantle.

“Men are so in need of heroes,” said Meehan. “Our hope is that the men who hear his story will be encouraged, inspired, and motivated to emulate not just his final act of sacrifice, but his life of sacrifice and the joy he derived from his pro-life heart.”

“Men need to hear that they, too, can be the pro-life hero to their family — to step up and be present day in and day out,” Meehan said.