Does the consumer culture affect marriage?

By A U.S. Catholic interview| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family
Family therapist William Doherty talks about the impact of consumer culture on marriage and personal relationships as well as the increasing rates of divorce. He urges church leaders to encourage married couples to strengthen their commitment to God and remind them that marriage is not a private lifestyle decision.

Does the consumer culture affect marriage? Yes and it's devastating. Marriage is becoming a lifestyle with a person I choose because they can meet my needs and we can be happy together.

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Trouble at home: How should parishes respond to domestic violence?

By Father Charles W. Dahm, O.P.| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article
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Father Charles W. Dahm, O.P., is associate pastor of St. Pius V parish in Chicago and the author of Parish Ministry in a Hispanic Community (Paulist).

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Is marriage on the rocks?

By Heather Grennan Gary| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family Young Adults
U.S. marriage rates are dropping, while the approval ratings of cohabitation and childbearing before marriage are climbing.

Young adult Catholics don't live in a vacuum, of course-most are influenced by what's going on in society. When it comes to marriage, however, that influence is mostly negative.

In 2007 the National Marriage Project's annual "State of Our Unions" report focused on the future of marriage and, in particular, the attitudes and practices of young adults.

Heather Grennan Gary is a former editor of U.S. Catholic.

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First comes love...

By Heather Grennan Gary| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family Young Adults
Careers, children, cohabitation—this isn’t your parents’ path to the altar.

Emily Barnak remembers a term that one of her cousins devised years ago to refer to a common reality among young adults and their significant others: LIS. Short for "living in sin." As in, "Are you LISing?" It comes in handy at family gatherings, when the 20- and 30-something cousins catch up on one another's lives and relationships but don't want to distress older relatives who would surely disapprove if they knew.

Heather Grennan Gary is a former editor of U.S. Catholic.

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Marriage of convenience: Changing wedding traditions

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family Prayer and Sacraments
Catholics should find a way to welcome couples whose paths to the altar don't go straight down the center aisle.
Bryan Cones is a writer living in Boston. See more posts by Bryan Cones

Marriage of convenience: Changing wedding traditions

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family Prayer and Sacraments
Catholics should find a way to welcome couples whose paths to the altar don't go straight down the center aisle.
Bryan Cones is a writer living in Boston. See more posts by Bryan Cones

Watch: 5 questions with Mary Jo Pedersen

U.S. Catholic| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family

As a national leader in Catholic family ministry and faith formation, Mary Jo Pedersen has encouraged preventive care for marriage through workshops, publications, and retreats. She recently retired from 25 years on the staff of the Family Life Office of the Archdiocese of Omaha. Pedersen embraces it. "Marriage is life's most important work, ultimately,” Pedersen says. “It's also a key investment in your health, your finances, your spiritual welfare. When you buy a new car, you take it in for an oil change every six months. Do you take your marriage in for a checkup every six months?”

Annulments: What never was

By Bob Zyskowski| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family

Mary Sue Williams and Cathy Miettunen lived just a few blocks apart in a tree-lined, middle-class neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota when both went through the Catholic Church's annulment process following their civil divorces.

Williams and Miettunen belonged to the same parish, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood, Minnesota, and both still do.

They sent their children to the same Catholic grade school, and both sacrificed to send them to the same Catholic high school.

Bob Zyskowski is editor of The Catholic Spirit, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. See more posts by Bob Zyskowski

Submissive to your husband?

By Sister Bernadette M. Reis, F.S.P.| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family Scripture and Theology Women
Scripture and traditional teachings can get in the way of victims' healing.
Sister Bernadette M. Reis, F.S.P., is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul and is involved in media ministry in Boston. See more posts by Sister Bernadette M. Reis, F.S.P.

Our love is here to stay

By A U.S. Catholic interview| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Marriage and Family
For most Catholics marriage is their path to holiness, says this expert. The church could-and should-do more to help them on their way.

 

If you ask Mary Jo Pedersen the secret to a good marriage, she just might point you to a dentist. How they think about teeth, she says, is how the rest of us should think about marriage:

"You get one set of teeth, that's it. They are of great value. If you don't take care of them, you can lose them, and it's going to cost you a lot of money and a lot of pain, so you go to the dentist and you get preventive care."

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