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

exist and to hear what it feels like to
have their body fail them.
A turning point for Cassie Taylor
was registering for an online retreat
focused on infertility and grief, hosted
by a ministry called Springs in the
Desert. She was relieved to hear they
were “Christ-focused, not conception-focused.”
Springs in the Desert was born from
the personal experience of Ann Koschute,
who began to observe common
feelings about identity, vocation,
and isolation in her conversations with
other Catholic women experiencing
infertility.
“We’re all kind of hidden,” she said.
“The ministry started out of necessity,
because we needed accompaniment.”
Springs in the Desert has become
one of the leading ministries for
Catholic couples experiencing infertility,
offering retreats, educational and
pastoral resources, a podcast, small
groups, and online events.
Taylor now manages its social media
accounts and hosts its podcast. The
demand is increasing, evidenced by
the growing body of podcast listeners,
engagement with social media, and
the number of dioceses promoting its
work.
Koschute hopes they can help facilitate
some changes in the way Catholics
approach the topic and those
affected by it.
“Within the Catholic space, there is
often an idolizing of the child and the
big Catholic family, which is the flip
side of the contraceptive mentality and
a culture focused on self-fulfillment.
But it can create a culture that says the
way to holiness is producing children.
“We need to be reminded that our
marriages are life-giving, that they are
powerful witnesses in a world where
people so easily give up on theirs
because they don’t get what they want
or don’t feel personally fulfilled,” she
said.
Her ultimate hope for the ministry is
that couples will better come to know
Christ as the wellspring in what she
calls the “desert of infertility.”
Marcolini wishes Catholics would
refrain from making assumptions
about childless couples, couples with a
small number of children, or couples
who have adopted, saying that it’s impossible
to know what anyone is going
Dr. Anne Nolte, right, a family physician with the
National Gianna Center for Women’s Health and
Fertility in New York, follows Catholic teaching and
guidelines for health care in her practice. | CNS/
GREGORY A. SHEMITZ
through or what has gone into their
discernment.
Now a mother of two adopted
daughters, Zelie, 2, and Gianna, 6
months, Elizabeth said her experience
“has been a deeper invitation into the
mystery of divine love since we are all
adopted sons and daughters of God.”
She and her husband share their story
with other couples preparing for marriage
in their diocese.
When asked what she would say to
others facing infertility, Elizabeth said
to pray for what you desire, but not to
spend your marriage and life waiting
for something that is not promised.
“Receive what God has for you today.
God is a God of the present, not of the
past or the future,” she said. “So live
right now.”
Elise Italiano Ureneck is a communications
consultant writing from Rhode
Island.
January 26, 2024 • ANGELUS • 23