Cardinal says Vatican is not moving toward accepting gay marriage December 28, 2023By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, Vatican, World News The Vatican’s affirmation that a priest can give an informal blessing to a gay couple who asks for one is not a first step toward the Catholic Church recognizing same-sex marriages, said Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
U.S. bishops issue flurry of responses to Vatican blessings document December 22, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Bishops, Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, Vatican, World News Following the Dec. 18 release of the Holy See’s declaration permitting blessings of those in irregular relationships, and the ensuing reaction from media and Catholics around the country, U.S. bishops have been responding with their own statements supporting and/or clarifying the document, known as “Fiducia Supplicans.”
Pope tells Rome priests: Blessings don’t affect sacrament of marriage December 22, 2023By Justin McLellan Catholic News Service Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, Vatican, World News The Vatican’s recently published guidance on administering blessings to same-sex couples or other unmarried couples does not affect the Catholic Church’s teaching on marriage, Pope Francis said.
‘Beware of reading too much too quickly’ into same-sex blessings document, say global bishops December 21, 2023By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News While several Western European bishops praised the Dec. 18 declaration of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on blessing same-sex couples as “a major breakthrough in pastoral care,” reactions elsewhere have been mixed, with African bishops offering explainers for “confused” faithful or banning same-sex blessings.
Did Pope Francis change Catholic teaching on gay marriage? December 19, 2023By Father Patrick Briscoe OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Marriage & Family Life The new document teaches that people seeking God shouldn’t be turned away, regardless of their state of life or moral situation.
Proposed referendum for Irish Constitution calls for widening the definition of family December 6, 2023By Michael Kelly OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News A pro-family campaign group has warned that a proposed March referendum in Ireland to amend the country’s constitution would be a “further downgrading of the importance of marriage to society.”
Pew: More Americans pessimistic than optimistic about future of marriage and family September 20, 2023By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News The American public’s views of the family are “complicated” and becoming “more pessimistic than optimistic about the institution of marriage and the family,” according to a new report from Pew Research Center.
Experts unpack Vatican-recommended ‘catechumenate for marriage’ September 2, 2023By Rachel Hoover OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News Leaders are still unpacking what a “marriage catechumenate” means for the church in the U.S.
Marriage formation leaders encouraged to ‘love like Christ,’ teach ‘the truth and beauty of family life’ September 1, 2023By Maria del Pilar Guzman OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News Participants of the Marriage Catechumenate Summit gathered at a retreat center near Houston to unpack the contents of “Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life,” a pastoral tool prepared by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life.
New prep program, modeled after ‘catechumenate,’ aims to strengthen marriages in faith August 25, 2023By Sean Gallagher OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News This “marriage catechumenate” model is an effort to return to the early church’s approach to forming adults to be received into the church.
NFP a ‘skill set’ to for showing ‘Christ is involved’ in marriage, family life, say experts July 29, 2023By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News Natural family planning, or NFP, provides “a skill set” to help Catholic and Christian couples “live out their beliefs that Christ is involved” in marriage and family life, a national expert told OSV News.
Global synod faces challenge of getting pastoral care to divorced Catholics in parishes July 28, 2023By Kimberly Heatherington OSV News Filed Under: Feature, Marriage & Family Life, News, World News The forthcoming 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops — otherwise known as the Synod on Synodality, which Pope Francis convenes in Rome this October — will examine ways to accompany divorced and remarried Catholics.
