Posts Tagged ‘Marriage’

Transgender people can be baptised

Thursday, November 9th, 2023
transgender

The Vatican has affirmed that transgender individuals are eligible to participate as godparents and witnesses in Roman Catholic sacraments of baptism and marriage, and they can be baptised. The Vatican’s document, signed by Pope Francis and Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, was published on the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith website on Read more

Marriage could disappear altogether

Thursday, October 26th, 2023
marriage

Marriage rates are declining. Marriage could disappear altogether, says an English Catholic bishop. The social consequences that the shrinking number of marriages is causing are not good, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury says. Speaking at a diocesan Mass celebrating marriage, Davies praised the congregation which was composed of married couples. Between them, they have amassed Read more

Pope Francis’ responses to the ‘dubia’ cardinals – brilliant

Monday, October 9th, 2023

No one knows for sure why Pope Francis chose to publish his responses to the dubia presented by five intransigent cardinals. My first thought was: Don’t swing at pitches in the dirt. And, it is tempting to observe that these dubious cardinals simply had it coming. Coming on the eve of the opening of the Read more

Catholic women divided over sex, divorce and patriarchy

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

Catholic women and their views on sex, divorce and patriarchy show a generational divide, a recent Australian University of Newcastle study found. Older women want reform, but younger Catholic women are more conservative. They want the rules on sex, contraception and the priesthood to remain as they are. About the study The study surveyed 17,200 Read more

Foster care ban for Catholic couple

Thursday, August 10th, 2023
foster care

Providing foster care is off the cards at present for a Catholic couple in Massachusetts. They say their religious beliefs are behind a ban on them participating in their State’s foster care system. Fighting the ban, Mike and Catherine “Kitty” Burke (pictured) turned to liberty group Becket Law who have filed a federal lawsuit on Read more

What Catholics actually want and need from marriage prep

Monday, February 13th, 2023
Marriage

Keep the lines of communication open, and buy gold. Those are the two things and the only things my husband and I learned in our marriage preparation classes 25 years ago. It’s hard to say which bit of advice was less helpful. We already knew communication was important, but what we really needed was practice. Read more

Faith, family and the dropping number of marriages – part II

Thursday, October 13th, 2022
declining number of marriages

It’s a message young people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hear early and often: You should get married because marriage is wonderful and family life is at the heart of the faith. The problem is that church leaders haven’t grasped the power of cultural trends in technology, education and economics that Read more

Faith, family and the declining number of marriages

Monday, October 10th, 2022
declining number of marriages

For decades, viewers have enjoyed the Japanese reality TV series “Old Enough!” in which preschool children venture into the streets alone to run errands for their parents. What if American women asked their live-in boyfriends to stop playing video games, leave their couches and run errands? In the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Old Enough! Longterm Read more

Seven decades of love celebrated

Thursday, December 9th, 2021

An Invercargill couple celebrating their 70th wedding anniversary believe they were lucky in love. Reaching a platinum anniversary would be a challenge for many couples, but for Lenox and Betty Allison it seemed to have been an easy task as they said had not noticed the time passing. “Honestly, it did not seem that long. Read more

What keeps couples apart?

Thursday, December 2nd, 2021
What keeps couples apart

Several months ago, as my wife’s birthday approached, I was thrilled to discover that a band she likes had plans to play next year in a nearby city. I booked good seats, spending a bit more than I normally would on birthdays, and began anticipating her reaction. On the morning of her birthday, she opened Read more