Angelus News | January 26, 2024 | Vol. 9 No. 2

After months of failed pregnancy tests,
surgery, and the reality of infertility
setting in, his wife, Elizabeth, experienced
a spiritual desolation.
“It’s hard to believe that a God who
loves you wouldn’t want to give his
daughter everything that she’s asking
for,” she confided in a friend.
Matthew struggled watching his wife
suffer such profound disappointment.
The couple thought back to a conversation
they had in marriage prep in
which they both shared they were open
to adoption. “That was a hypothetical
conversation, but a providential one,”
Elizabeth said.
Five years into marriage, after prayers
and pilgrimages in search of peace,
they got a phone call from a friend who
had heard an announcement at daily
Mass: a local woman was two weeks
away from giving birth and looking
for adoptive parents for her child with
medical needs.
Matthew told his wife that someone
had found their baby.
***
Catholic couples like the Taylors
and Marcolinis are used to hearing
about the need to be “open to life” and
forsake personal comfort for having a
larger family than the social ideal.
But a growing number are struggling
with the opposite: not being able to
conceive or bear children at all.
They are part of a statistically significant
number of people across the
world experiencing infertility, broadly
defined as the inability to conceive
after one year of unprotected sex for
women under 35 and six months for
women 35 and older.
According to a report issued by the
World Health Organization, 1 in 6 people
worldwide — between 60 and 80
million couples — experience infertility
during their reproductive years.
In the U.S., 1 in 5 married women between
the ages of 15-49 with no prior
births have difficulty conceiving. Miscarriage
moves that rate up to 1 in 4.
Common causes of infertility include:
Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, which
impedes ovulation; improper functioning
of the thyroid, pituitary gland, and
hypothalamus; structural abnormalities
or growths in reproductive organs;
endometriosis, in which uterine lining
grows outside of the uterus; poor sperm
quality and count; and sexually transmitted
infections.
Additionally, delayed childbearing
is driving up rates. More women are
waiting until their mid-late 30s and
early 40s to try to conceive.
According to Caroline Gilbert, a certified
nurse practitioner at University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Divine
Mercy Women’s Health, “Fertility
drops a little after 30 but takes a nose
dive after 40.”
“I don’t think a lot of women want
to be getting married later, especially
my Catholic female patients,” she said.
“But that’s just the way the world is.”
The default assumption within the
medical community is that individuals
and couples will use artificial means of
procreation — from donor gametes to
IVF to surrogates — to have biologically
related children. Insurance companies
today are more likely to provide
coverage for these services but not for
alternative treatments. And the proliferation
of celebrities using these means
of reproduction is shifting cultural perceptions
about everything from success
rates to moral acceptance.
***
The challenge the Church faces is to
help an increasing number of Catholics,
many who suffer in silence, to
discern God’s plan for their marriage
and pursue avenues to be fruitful that
respect God’s plan for life and love.
Therese Bermpohl, director of the
Office of Family Life for the Diocese
of Arlington, Virginia, said she was
receiving call after call from priests
asking what they could do for couples
in their parishes who felt unseen and
needed support.
“I think as a Church we tend to minimize
the loss and grief associated with
infertility and miscarriage.”
Her office launched Our Fruitful
Love, a website that “provides practical
resources, testimonials, Church teaching,
and a community that stands with
people in their sorrow and grief.”
One of their
most popular
initiatives has
been an annual
novena
concluding on
A doctor is pictured in a
file photo preparing eggs
and sperm for an attempt
at artificial insemination. |
OSV NEWS/ALESSANDRO
BIANCHI, REUTERS
the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Bishop Michael Burbidge, who leads
the diocese, offers a private Mass for
participants at its conclusion.
While she encourages participants to
pray for miracles, she’s always moved
when people let her know it helped
them come to “complete peace” about
God’s plan for their marriage.
January 26, 2024 • ANGELUS • 21