Ask the women from all over Sydney who filled St Jerome’s church, Punchbowl on 1 August what they had been taught about their own bodies, and the answer came back the same from teenagers, mothers and grandmothers alike. Almost nothing.
“When I was a young lady getting married, I never knew any of this,” said Joanne Webb, a mother of four. “It was something you never spoke about. You got married, you had babies, and that was it. No one really informed you.”
‘Created in Love: Women, Fertility and God’s Plan’, set out to end that silence in a single day.
Presented by the Life, Marriage and Family team of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation, through its Catholic Women’s Network ministry and in partnership with the Maronite Women’s Ministry, it drew about 150 women for a program on fertility, women’s health and Catholic faith, the first event of its kind in the archdiocese.
The Azzi family came three generations deep: grandmother, mother and granddaughters.
“It’s very, very special, very, very nice to see my granddaughters knowing how to deal with their bodies and natural fertility,” the grandmother, Sanaa Dabbagh said.
For her daughter, Lulu Azzi, it was bittersweet. “It’s very important for them to learn,” she said.
“Growing up, I didn’t get this opportunity. We weren’t given this information, to learn about our bodies and how they work. Hopefully later in life, when they get married, they’ll learn about fertility and the way God planned for us.”
Her daughter, Selena’s message to women who find the subject too hard to approach was direct. “You’re not alone. You have so many amazing women behind you, so much support. God really loves you, and the church will support you no matter what.”
That conviction is what built the day. Hannah Ayoub, one of the coordinators through the Maronite Women’s Ministry committee, was told at 19 that her body was producing pre-cancerous cells in place of a normal cycle. The rare condition left her on the verge of developing cancer and needing a hysterectomy.
“It can be a really scary concept to hear, and to feel like you’re going through it alone, because it feels like something women shouldn’t talk about,” she said.
“In a lot of our cultures, and sometimes even in our faith, we’re taught we deal with it by ourselves. It’s private. It’s taboo.
“But as we’ve seen today, so many women have that story. There is so much help and hope, because you can do it together.”
The program was pitched deliberately across every stage of life. Mass and a morning session on natural family planning was followed by Eucharistic adoration, then three breakouts: Theology of the Body with Fr Daniel McCaughan, restorative reproductive medicine with keynote speakers Dr Michael Azzi and his wife Nadia Azzi of the NaPro Life Centre, and a session on menopause, led by Dr Marie Rose Mouawad, called ‘Beyond Hot Flushes’.
That last one mattered, Hannah said, for “a really forgotten age group, who go through a lot and need support and love as well.”
The session acknowledged not only the physiological changes women experience during menopause, but also the deeper spiritual significance and opportunities for growth, hope, and renewal in this season of life.
It was a subject Mrs Webb knows all too well about but speaks of rarely. “We might speak about it between very close friends. I’ve got five men at home. They can tell you a lot of stories about hot flushes! Very, very uncomfortable. But it’s a part of life.”
Dr Azzi said the turnout confirmed how rare the day was.
“In the few years I’ve been doing this work, there hasn’t been anything like it,” he said. His breakout traced NaPro Technology to its roots: “a call in Humanae Vitae, for men of science and men of faith to develop medicine that works with the body’s natural processes rather than overtake it.”
Fr McCaughan, whose talk: ‘A Call to Love’, spoke on St John Paul II’s ‘Theology of the Body’, and said the need was pastoral as much as medical.
“Many of my brother priests have listened to the struggles of women trying to conceive,” he said. “And so, giving them all the means and the resources and support necessary is a very important thing.”
Organiser Ranin Kanno from the Life, Marriage and Family team said she hoped the conversation would travel home with them, to their families and their parishes.
“That they walk away knowing they are created with love by God,” she said.
“That each one of them is precious to him, valued by him and that they’re not alone in whatever journey they’re walking.”
