Dr. Catherine Ruth Pakaluk is Assistant Professor of Social Research and Economic Thought at The Catholic University of America in Washington. She is the Director of the American Family and Fertility Project, a multi-year, multi-phase project examining the contours of American childbearing and family formation.
A new study shows that as millennials are approaching age 40, their family life radically differs from past generations, a reality that Catholic leaders and scholars say present particular challenges for passing on the faith and for building Catholic community.
Marriage and family are primary sites of the field hospital Pope Francis envisions for the Catholic Church, according to theologians Julie Hanlon Rubio and Jason King.
Across the U.S., the coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed wedding plans. Some are taking part in socially distanced weddings while others have canceled altogether.
Two love stories that show how the sacrament of marriage and married life can flourish in the Diocese of Brooklyn.
All three wore the dress as they walked down the aisle of the same church — St. Agnes Church in Jefferson. Hillman’s great grandparents had moved into this Catholic parish in the 1940s, sent their children to school there and never left. Her grandmother was 19 when she got married. Her mom was 24, and Hillman was 28 on her wedding day this April.
Since Pope Francis announced a meeting of bishops on the Amazon two years ago, talk in the media and among some of the key organizers, such as Brazilian Cardinal Claudio Hummes, has been dominated by the possibility of ordaining married men as priests to serve isolated rural communities.
This past winter, Matilde passed away on a trip to Peru, the family’s native country. The children had her body brought back to White Plains, N.Y., where they live, for the funeral. One day, while praying with the family, their cousin-in-law Manuel Mendoza felt the Holy Spirit nudge him to invite the siblings who had been married civilly back to the faith.
German Cardinal Walter Kasper, considered a close theological adviser to Pope Francis, said that if during an upcoming meeting of bishops on the Amazon region the prelates asked for the ordination of married men, the Argentine pontiff would grant the request.
Egypt’s three major Christian denominations – Catholic, Coptic and Evangelical Christian – are preparing to sign off on a final draft of what is known in the country as “personal-status” law, the rules governing marriage, divorce and inheritance for Christians in Egypt.
