“Christian marriage ... is in itself a liturgical action glorifying God in Jesus Christ and in the Church” (Familiaris Consortio, 56) (Man, Male and Female, is a "religious being" (CCC, 28[1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, hereafter CCC … [Read more...]
Parents as Primary Educators
February 12, 2016 by Dr. William Newton
Hardly a month goes by now without an email arriving in my inbox asking me to sign an online petition against some proposal in the EU or UK concerning sex education in schools. Perhaps, it is a matter of protesting a resolution calling for … [Read more...]
Wives, Be Subordinate to Your Husbands?
John Paul II on Ephesians 5:21-33
February 12, 2016 by Dr. Katie Froula
Ephesians 5:21-33 isn’t a popular reading at weddings these days, and at first glance, it seems that it isn’t hard to see why. Aren’t St. Paul’s repeated exhortations for wives to be submissive to their husbands rather sexist and outdated? H … [Read more...]
Reflections on the Indissolubility of Marriage and the Trinity
December 28, 2015 by Kathleen Curran Sweeney
The source of our holiness as Christians is rooted in the revelation of God as Trinity with an interior life of total reciprocal, self-giving love between unique, distinct Persons who are, together, the Divine Unity. But the Divine Trinity … [Read more...]
A Fresh Look at the Song of Songs
December 14, 2015 by Melissa Maleski
With recent legal cases around the world, with the United States Supreme Court’s decisions, as well as the recent Irish referendum on same sex marriage, there are now reports of a group of bishops and theologians discussing the need for a “ … [Read more...]
The Synod’s End and an Advent Prayer Time for the Church
November 16, 2015 by David Vincent Meconi
Pope Francis During Extraordinary Synod of Bishops; Advent wreath. The Synod on the Family, called by Pope Francis to address: “The vocation and mission of the family in the Church and the contemporary world,” has come to a close. There ha … [Read more...]
“Do-it-Yourself” or Vocation: Coincidence or Providence
"Window dressing” or the Complementarity of the Sacraments of Marriage and the Eucharist?
October 26, 2015 by Francis Etheredge
Is marriage independent of sexual identity, an optional role or an unjust institution; or, alternatively, is there a deeper answer to the question of a man marrying a woman? We live in a time, then, when the foundations of marriage in the … [Read more...]
Questions Answered
October 26, 2015 by Fr. Brian Mullady, OP
Question: A local priest has, on more than one occasion, preached that Jesus “became a human being.” Is that the same thing as he “became man?” Are the two terms interchangeable? Answer: This question takes up the famous issue of what the … [Read more...]
The Family: Expanded Sacrament
September 14, 2015 by Fr. John M. McDermott, SJ
It has become a trite truism to say that the traditional family is under attack. The sources of the onslaught may be traced back at least to the 19th century’s exaltation of Romantic infatuation and its accompanying insistence that the s … [Read more...]
The Sacrament of Matrimony: A Conversation with Millennials
August 30, 2015 by Father Philip-Michael F. Tangorra, STL
Abbreviations LG: Lumen Gentium, Second Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution on the Church MR: Missale Romanum (Roman Missal) (2010) SC: Sacrosanctum Concilium, Second Vatican Council Constitution on the Sacred … [Read more...]
Further Thoughts on the Synod
July 12, 2015 by Msgr. Cormac Burke
There was rejoicing at the first calling of the Synod because the family is in a bad way almost everywhere in the world. If there has been so much dissatisfaction with last year's—preliminary—Synod it is because the reports given, and the im … [Read more...]
“Family, Become What You Are”
Probing the Depth of the Theology of the Family
June 27, 2015 by Kathleen Curran Sweeney
Catholic families today are surrounded and pressured by many wrong ideas and attitudes prevalent in our culture. The very meaning of marriage and family has been undermined. Families could use some bolstering and clear thinking to support … [Read more...]
Sexuality and Spirituality
An Attempt at Integration for Sexual and Spiritual Health
May 12, 2015 by Patrick F. Cioni
Abstract: This paper attempts to show the relationship between sexuality and spirituality, and ways to attain profound union between husbands and wives. Incorporating spirituality with sexual behavior enhances the capacity for satisfaction … [Read more...]
Same-Sex Marriage?
May 12, 2015 by Fr. William P. Clark, OMI
The question of same-sex marriage is complex in various ways: legally, morally, sociologically, and psychologically. It is not the purpose here, however, to analyze the phenomenon of same-sex unions under any of those aspects. The more … [Read more...]
On a Small Point of Doctrine
April 15, 2015 by Fr. James V. Schall, SJ
He (Sir Thomas More) gave up life itself, deliberately; he accepted violent death as of a criminal, not even for the Faith as a whole, but on one particular, small point of doctrine—to wit, the supremacy of the See of Peter. (Hilaire B … [Read more...]
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