Replies

I thought I would post Popcak's defense from Shea's blog.
(note: the whole letter is longer. I'm just posting the relevant part. Sitetest has already provided an accurate summary.)

A Note from Greg Popcak Regarding Questions About His Work

Dear Friends,

I wanted to take a brief moment to respond to some of the concerns that have been expressed about my work. The following is by no means intended to be a complete response, and in fact, the best response I can make has already been written in the seven books I have penned. If you want to know what I think, go read them. Rather, this is intended to assist those with legitimate questions and who are seeking the truth, as opposed to those who would rather wallow in gossip, and lies. If you are the former, I invite your further questions. If you are the latter, let's not waste our time.

1. The Brother/Sister charting question.

The paragraph in question has been reprinted on this blog, so I will not repost it here.

First, I genuinely could not care less if you use this technique in your family or not. The ONLY reason I included it in the book is that I was aware that some families, with mature children, are already doing this. I felt it would be a service to those families to provide guidelines regarding modesty and propriety so that such a technique could be done in the most respectful way possible.

I do feel somewhat favorably toward it because--done properly and respectfully--it can demystify the sexual cycle, and the Holy Father tells us, in Love and Responsibility (c.f., the section on Sexology), that giving such information about both the goodness of the body and how the body functions is a good and useful thing. However, I also understand that some children are not mature enough to handle such an execise, and some families would not think it appropriate. This is why I leave it to parental discretion. I stand by what I wrote.

Personally, I cannot say whether I would ever use such a technique in my own family or not. It would require prayer and consultation with my wife, and would have to take into account the psychological maturity of my children.

If you choose to use this idea, fine--just please be mindful of modesty and propriety. If, alternatively, the idea offends you, then ignore it altogether. It is one paragraph in a two-hundred-plus page book and the rest of the work hardly stands or falls on the one idea, which did not even originate with me, but rather, was the idea of many other families. And because I respect the wisdom of families, who are the first teachers, and not just professionals, who are--at best--helpers, I included the idea, with appropriate cautions.