Catholic Singles, Pray to This Saint for a Spouse
Why leave the most important decision of your Catholic life to chance when you have a royal intercessor ready to come to your aid!
The Prince Charming Problem
The “soul mate” ideal is ruining marriage as people seek Prince Charming instead of real partners. True love is found in regular, not perfect, people.
Love’s Conquest of the Cosmos
What moves the earth and the planets and all the stars above? The answer is Love.
Stemming the Tide of Divorces and Annulments
The default and public position of many in diocesan family life offices is to assume that if one is divorced, he or she is in need of “healing” or “moving on” by way of an annulment. This is wrong.
The Curious Case of the Purloined Precept
Why did the sixth precept—”To observe the laws of the Church concerning marriage”—disappear from Catholic catechisms?
From Marital Debt to Marital Credit
While the language of “marital debt” can turn the self-giving human relationship of marriage into a legalistic project of obedience, what is the proper approach to the marital relationship?
Defending Marriage When Church Leaders Don’t
The institution of marriage is under attack; in fact, in many ways it seems to be on its last legs. How have Catholic leaders failed in defending marriage, and how can Catholics rebuild our respect for this sacred institution?
Nine Bad Arguments for Catholics Attending Invalid “Weddings”
We’ve become so used to Catholic priests and influencers telling us that we may go to these invalid “weddings” that we’ve forgotten to question the premise: What is the authoritative source for that advice?
If You Want a Happy Marriage, Take the Marital Debt Seriously
Few subjects raise such ire and disgust as the marital debt, but it is the teaching of the universal Church, and it does matter.
The Trouble With Debates About “Marital Debt”
The trouble with discussions of marital debt is they overlook the larger context of human relationships that render the truth or falsity irrelevant.
The Marriage/Parenthood Disconnect
While conceptually distinctive, Catholic theology has always recognized marriage and parenthood typically go in tandem and that openness to life is a prerequisite to entering a valid marriage.
Husbands, Lead and Cherish Your Wives
It is divinely revealed truth that husbands are called to lead their wives in the way that Christ leads the Church. This means that husbands are called to serve, direct, die for, and cherish their wives.
The Church of England: Not of Sound Mind
Church of England bishops have decided to stick to the church’s traditional teaching that marriage is “between a man and a woman,” which will lead to no small amount of lamenting within that Church about not keeping up with secular morality.
A Hill On Which To Die
Defending marriage these days would seem to be a hill on which not so many are prepared to die. But why should that be the case? After all, there really isn’t anything more deserving of defense than the oldest institution in the world.
Marriage: Why Bother?
The walls of the Sacred City of Matrimony have been widely breached, and the hordes have entered. The battle began in the late 1960s, raged for a few decades, and now is over.
Waiting for the New Jerusalem
A few years ago, in Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity, I wrote that the recognition of same-sex pseudogamous relations—the acceptance of a lie, that a man can in fact mate with another man, or a woman with a woman—would make it even harder than it already is for us to see that man is made for woman … Read more
Male and Female He Created Them. And for a Good Reason
It has been just six years since I wrote Defending Marriage: Twelve Arguments for Sanity, warning against the fantasy that two members of the same sex can marry one another, when they cannot even have sexual relations but can only mimic them. I founded my arguments not upon Scripture or the teaching of the Church—indeed I did not … Read more
Why Faithful Catholics Get Divorced
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.” That’s how divorce starts for the Catholic couples I talked to: hard-core, confession-going, Humanae Vitae-believing Catholic couples. Couples who know exactly what marriage is supposed to be. One man I spoke with, now divorced, took Scott Hahn’s Christian marriage class with his theology-major fiancée. Another couple, now divorced, … Read more
The Fight for Traditional Marriage Isn’t Over
During the Season of Advent, as we approach the celebration of the Nativity of Our Savior, we should stop to consider that “the first witnesses of Christ’s birth, the shepherds, found themselves not only before the Infant Jesus but also before a small family: mother, father and newborn Son. God had chosen to reveal himself … Read more
