EWTN Sex Counselor and Psychotherapist Outed as a Closet Jansenist?

Catholic Family News ^ | 8/15/2003 | Bridgette O'Donnell

[Diago]

This guys is warped!

In his own words:

In Beyond the Birds and the Bees, Popcak wrote, "Explain to your sons that as God is giving them the gift of their sexuality, He is asking them to spend the next several years learning how to use that gift properly. Part of that means that if he marries, he will be responsible for working with his wife to determine God's will for their lives, including when to have children and how many children to have. These are decisions that need to be made every month in collaboration with his wife and with prayer. After he is married, part of his responsibility will be to help his wife do something called charting, which means that he will write down the different signs that tell how healthy his wife is and when they could have a baby. I am aware of some families where the brother may chart his sister's temperatures for her, or even some cases where the mother shares her own NFP chart (minus the coitus record, of course) with the intent of acquainting the young men and women of the house with NFP.

[Diago]

Part of that means that if he marries, he will be responsible for working with his wife to determine God's will for their lives, including when to have children and how many children to have. These are decisions that need to be made every month in collaboration with his wife and with prayer. After he is married, part of his responsibility will be to help his wife do something called charting, which means that he will write down the different signs that tell how healthy his wife is and when they could have a baby. I am aware of some families where the brother may chart his sister's temperatures for her, or even some cases where the mother shares her own NFP chart (minus the coitus record, of course) with the intent of acquainting the young men and women of the house with NFP.

Thanks for the heads up on this guy, Max. This is really, really, off the wall! I will pray that no one takes him seriously.

[Diago]

And note, the folks at CatholicCitizens.org, where I found this article, are mainstream Catholics.

Meet the People of the CatholicCitizens.org.

Executive Staff
Mary Anne Hackett - President
Mr. Karl Maurer - Vice President, Treasurer and Web Editor
Thomas F. Roeser - Chairman of the Board

Advisory Board
Dan Cheely - Mauk, Bellande & Cheely
Cristov Dosev - Mardoc Properties, LP
Keith Fournier - Your Catholic Voice Foundation
Deal Hudson - Crisis Magazine
Dennis Martin - Loyola University Professor of Theology
Joseph A. Morris - Morris, Rathnau & De La Rosa
Michael Rose - Author
David A. Shaneyfelt - Thomas Aquinas University
Jerome A. Urbik - Hinsdale Associates

[Loyalist]

PING.

How does a pervert like Popcak get on to EWTN?

[Diago]

My wife's response after reading this:

Creepy

[OpusatFR]

The guy has very severe boundary issues.

[Domestic Church]

Regarding NACHE, here's an eye opener:

http://members.tripod.com/~catholic_homeschool/divided.html

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

The guy has very severe boundary issues.

I wholeheartedly agree. This borders on incestuous.

[Maximilian]

Thanks for the heads up on this guy, Max. This is really, really, off the wall! I will pray that no one takes him seriously.

We were talking about this article today at home, and my 18-year old daughter said that she thinks that all the NFP crowd are this weird, it's only that articles like this expose the weirdness. Popcak is on EWTN, he's endorsed by the Knights of Columbus, he speaks at the Couple to Couple League and NACHE (National Assoc of Catholic Home Educators). He's not out of the mainstream among neo-Catholic thought.

If that sounds like an extreme statement, his writings aren't any worse than those of another guy who appears in all the same places: Christopher West. Mr. "Naked without Shame" himself takes the Pope's personalism to mean that we shouldn't have to wear clothes any more. He is the putative author of Archbishop Chaput's famous pastoral letter defending Humanae Vitae. The pastoral letter is actually a joke, but it's held up as the very model of orthodoxy. This is actually as good as it gets when you stray into the Alice-in-Wonderland world of NFP promotion.

[Possenti]

Ugh! I had to stop reading at 'the "Brother" Chart' description.

I'll check it out tomorrow during the day so I can still sleep tonight...

Speaking of EWTN - have you seen this story?

[Maximilian]

And note, the folks at CatholicCitizens.org, where I found this article, are mainstream Catholics.

Catholic Citizens of Illinois is a good group that works closely with Roman Catholic Faithful. They are re-printing this article from Catholic Family News in order to expose the weirdness, not to support Popcak. The headline, however, is misleading, since Popcak was accusing everyone who sticks with traditional Catholic teaching of being a Jansenist; it was not Popcak who was accused of being a Jansenist.

[Maximilian]

Regarding NACHE, here's an eye opener:

Yes, that was a very sad case in which the founder of the organization was tossed out by a new crowd led by Kimberly Hahn so that they could try to force sex education upon Catholic home schoolers. Here's a working link:

Catholic Homeschoolers, A House Divided

This [sex education] "initiative," as it was dubbed by Mary Hasson of NACHE (National Association of Catholic Home Educators) owes much, if not all, of its endorsement by NACHE and company to the cooperation of Scott and Kimberly Hahn, as well as Michaelann Martin, wife of Curtis Martin, Catholics United for the Faith's (CUF) president. Moreover, Kimberly Hahn now sits on the NACHE Board with Mrs. Hasson and they are both co-authors of Catholic Education: Homeward Bound.

Note in the Popcak article the way that Popcak uses his relationship with Scott and Kimberly Hahn as some sort of imprimatur for his bizarre ideas. Scott Hahn has been taken to task recently for publishing books that try to compare the family to the Holy Trinity, a comparison that just doesn't work, and that becomes blasphemous if you try to push it too far.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

Scott Hahn has a lot of embarassing biblical exegesis. I don't think he ever really left his Protestantism behind.

[Domestic Church]

Thank you for making that clickable.

It's funny but that book Catholic Education:Homeward Bound was the first thing we experienced in researching Catholic home education and I have to say at least it presented the idea which we had never come across prior to seeing and buying the book from the Ignatius Press catalogue. After that when we got a pc I was glad to find wonderful articles written by Fr. John Hardin in the ewtn library and the Catholic-Pages.com website. The rift and political underpinnings in the Catholic HS community gradually became apparent but the KIC website really pulls no punches.

NACHE seems more interested in controlling home education than in supporting it.

[Antoninus]

Advisory Board
Dan Cheely - Mauk, Bellande & Cheely
Cristov Dosev - Mardoc Properties, LP
Keith Fournier - Your Catholic Voice Foundation
Deal Hudson - Crisis Magazine
Dennis Martin - Loyola University Professor of Theology
Joseph A. Morris - Morris, Rathnau & De La Rosa
Michael Rose - Author
David A. Shaneyfelt - Thomas Aquinas University
Jerome A. Urbik - Hinsdale Associates

Never would have thought I'd see those two listed on the same advisory board for anything. Have they buried the hatchet I wonder?

[Antoninus]

Regarding NACHE, here's an eye opener:

As I'm finding out, the Catholic homeschool community is deeply divided....

[Maximilian]

It's funny but that book Catholic Education:Homeward Bound was the first thing we experienced in researching Catholic home education and I have to say at least it presented the idea which we had never come across prior to seeing and buying the book from the Ignatius Press catalogue.

I haven't read the book, but I believe that it's a knock-off of Mary Pride. I too have found a lot of good in Mary Pride, although it's true that she's not a Catholic. A few weeks ago we went to a book-selling event run by a protestant home-school group. There was a lot of stuff there by A-Beka, etc., but we just picked through for the stuff we wanted. Everyone uses Saxon Math.

[Maximilian]

Never would have thought I'd see those two listed on the same advisory board for anything. Have they buried the hatchet I wonder?

Ha, ha, that is pretty funny. I'd don't think they're on speaking terms yet. I'm sure this "advisory board" is strictly based on the use of their name. I'd bet 100 - 1 that this "board" has never actually sat down together at the same time.

[Diago]

He's not out of the mainstream among neo-Catholic thought.

I don't know, Max. This is some extremely weird stuff. Not even your friend, Sinkspur, has been willing to step forward to defend it. It is also noteworthy that Deal Hudson (isn't he one of the so-called neo-Catholic leaders?) is on the Board of Catholic Citizens, the organization that reprinted this very enlightening article.

[Maximilian]

He's not out of the mainstream among neo-Catholic thought.
I don't know, Max. This is some extremely weird stuff.

You act as though those 2 statements are contradictory.