Two years ago the Northwestern University psychologist Eli Finkel had an article in The Times describing how marriage is polarizing: The best marriages today are better than the best marriages of generations ago; the worst marriages now are worse; over all, the average marriage is weaker than the average marriage in days of yore. Expectations Read more
Pope Francis has invited a group of divorced and remarried Catholics to a private audience, ahead of the expected release of a document on family life. Sixty members of the Italian group L’anello perduto (“The Lost Ring”) had sent a letter to the Pope to share their experience of divorce. “In separation we have suffered Read more
Most New Zealanders getting divorced are in their mid-40s and don’t have kids, and the “seven-year itch” is a myth. In fact, Statistics New Zealand figures show couples are most likely to call it quits after about 14 years. Figures from 2014, the latest year reliable statistics are available, show that couples most commonly filed Read more
While December 8 was being marked in the wider Church as the beginning of the Year of Mercy, for canon lawyers it is, first and foremost, the day the reforms of Mitis Iudex come into force. Since Pope Francis announced the dramatic changes to the tribunal system for handling marriage nullity cases in September, the Read more
A motion in the Australian senate to protect the Catholic Church’s right to distribute its “Don’t mess with marriage” pamphlet has been blocked. Former Australian cabinet minister Senator Eric Abetz put up the motion in the senate on Thursday. This was on the same day as it was confirmed that Tasmania’s anti-discrimination commissioner is to conduct an Read more
“Ready for the marriage apocalypse?” challenges CNN. “Young couples shun marriage over divorce fears,” booms the Telegraph. Headlines like these give the impression that marriage has all but died among millennials – but this isn’t the whole picture. It is true that marriage among young people in the UK is on the decline. In 2012, Read more
In an interview with Cindy Wooden of the Catholic News Services Cardinal John Dew, the Archbishop of Wellington, said he did not think anyone was arguing that church doctrine should be changed. “We know what the church teaches; we all want to preserve that.” He said that there was, however, a need to change the Read more
A gay former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has written a letter to Pope Francis in which the Church is accused of homophobia. Msgr Krzysztof Charamsa told Francis the Catholic Church is “full of homosexuals” despite being “frequently violently homophobic”. The Polish theologian called on “all gay cardinals, gay bishops Read more
Sharron Cole, president of Parents Centres New Zealand, says Synod bishops lacked understanding in a host of areas affecting Catholic people’s lives. Cole was a New Zealand observer at the 2015 Synod on Families. She is calling on the church to listen “with deep empathy” to lay people and to “re-examine its teaching on marriage and Read more
An Australian archbishop has called for a new pastoral creativity, not an all-or-nothing approach, to families in situations the Church sees as problematic. Speaking a news conference at the synod on the family, Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane said he was concerned an “all-or-nothing” approach tended to dominate discussions before and, at times, during the Read more