Marriage - Digging Deeper

Holy Family Sunday Message
Safeguard the Family Founded on Marriage
VATICAN CITY, December 27, 2009 (VIS) - Before praying the Angelus on this Sunday of the Holy Family, the Pope reminded the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square that "God wished to reveal Himself by being born in a human family, and hence the human family has become an icon of God.

New Marriage Pastoral Letter From US Bishops
"Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan"
BALTIMORE, MD, November 17, 2009 - The US Bishops, at their annual Fall gathering in Baltimore, approved a new Pastoral Letter yesterday meant to respond to the many cultural attacks on marriage with a comprehensive re-affirmation of Catholic teaching on marriage.

The Future of Humanity Passes
Through Marriage and the Family
In the papal encyclicals from "Humanae Vitae" (1968) to "Evangelium Vitae" (1995) and especially the apostolic exhortation "Familiaris Consortio" (1981) and the magnificent "Letter to Families" (1994), Popes Paul VI and John Paul II have dedicated much attention to marriage and the family in today’s culture. From the first year of his pontificate, John Paul II constantly emphasized: “the family is the way of the Church." The family is a school of communion, based on the values of the Gospel.

"On the Demise of Fatherhood"
A Review
"We are now entering a brave new world, where marriage is easily dissolved before it becomes tyrannical, where parenthood is the product of choice not mere biology, where reproductive technologies allow us to have the children of our own making, and where fathers have finally earned the hard-won freedom to follow their dreams and leave their children behind."

New Video on the Meaning of Marriage
www.marriagematterstokids.org
What is the meaning of marriage? Do mothers and fathers matter? Is protecting marriage bigotry? Does any state have the authority to deny children their right to a mother and a father? What are the consequences of redefining marriage?

Vatican on Legal Recognition of Homosexual Unions
Why are there absolutely no grounds for giving legal recognition to unions of homosexual persons? A Vatican document addresses this question, presenting the natural truth about marriage to show why the common good requires the protection and promotion of marriage between a man and a woman as the basis of the family, and why laws favoring homosexual unions are contrary to reason, obscure basic moral values and cause a devaluation of marriage.

US Bishops on Marriage and Same-Sex Unions
Marriage Only Between One Man and One Woman
What is marriage? Why can it exist only between a man and a woman? Why is it important for the society to keep it exclusively as a union between a man and a woman? Now is a good time to look at the answers to these and other related questions provided by the US Bishops.

Bishop Soto Speaks Out in Support of Marriage and Prop 8
The teaching of the Church regarding the sacred dignity of human sexuality is not a rebuke but an invitation to love as God loves us.  The Church’s firm support of Proposition 8 is not a rebuke against homosexuals but a heartfelt affirmation of the nature of the marriage covenant between a man and a woman.  We hope and pray that all people, including our brothers and sisters who are homosexuals, will see the reasonableness of our position and the sincerity of our love for them.

A Pastoral Statement on The CA Marriage Ruling
Beautiful Guidance from Bishop Vigneron of Oakland

SAN FRANCISCO, May 18, 2008 -- This past weekend the Most Rev. Allen H. Vigneron, Bishop of Oakland, asked his priests to read a brief pastoral message at Masses regarding the California Supreme Court same-sex "marriage" ruling.

The Whys and Wherefores of Catholic Sexual Ethics
The Way to True Freedom and True Love
In some ways the teaching of the Catholic Church on sexual ethics is well known. Most people know what the Church teaches. Her basic teaching is this: one can rightly choose to exercise one's genital sexual powers only when one, as a spouse, freely chooses to engage in the conjugal act and, in that act, chooses to respect fully the goods of mutual self-giving and of human procreation.