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There are many predictors of the success of a marriage, among them the having of money, the having of children, and the length of time a couple spends dating before they tie the knot. Another big predictor, though, is age: The closer a couple is when it comes to their respective birth years, the greater their chances of avoiding divorce. That's according to a study that compiled polling data from more than 3,000 recently married and divorced Americans. The study—the overall findings of which my colleague Olga Khazan highlighted last month—used a multivariate model to calculate the factors that seemed...

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus used to call it “the parish paper,” a gentle barb at the pretensions of the self-described “paper of record,” but also, I think, a subtle pastoral hand extended to those who think they get all the advice they need when they look in the mirror.Yes, I’m talking about the New York Times, which just ran a discussion group on dropping the celibacy requirement for Catholic clergy. It was a “usual suspects” sort of panel, with the balance one would expect. Of 7 panelists 4 were in favor of married priests, one argued both for and...

I found it very suspect that our King plus a huge trade delegation visited Japan a day before Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda announced the new extreme surprise round of stimulus. Gold Repatriation Stunner: Dutch Central Bank Secretly Withdrew 122 Tons Of Gold From The New York Fed http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-11-21/gold-repatriation-stunner-dutch-central-bank-secretly-withdrew-122-tons-gold-new-yor Need Tips on Sticking to your Trade Plan? Global Consequences The impact of the Dutch gold repatriation can be huge. First of all, because it underlines more and more countries are getting nervous about their gold reserves stored in the US. Venezuela repatriated most of its reserves from abroad in...

Authorities say they have arrested a "criminal Casanova" suspected of swindling thousands of dollars from wives, fiances and girlfriends across the nation. Trevor Thornton, 33, was arrested on Nov. 19 on a grand theft charge in Broward County after he stole $14,000 from a woman he had been dating for just two weeks, according to the Broward County Sheriff's Office....

There are more important things in life than politics. One of those things is happening as I write. Most of the world is oblivious to it. The press corps has completely ignored it. But it may be one of the most consequential events in the early twenty-first century. It is called Humanum. In Rome, at the Vatican, an interfaith gathering is occurring to discus marriage. Leading voices in the Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, and Christian communities have gathered to support and strengthen each other in the struggle against growing anti-faith norms toward marriage and family. Pope Francis opened the...

Princeton University law professor Robert P. George ROME — So far, Pope Francis’ most significant internal opposition has come from conservative Catholics alarmed over what they see as playing fast-and-loose with Catholic doctrine. This week, however, an all-star lineup of conservatives gathered in Rome has come to the pope’s defense. “I am a conservative politically,” said Princeton University law professor Robert P. George, considered one of America’s most prominent Catholic commentators. “But I’m a Pope Francis Catholic, which is simply to say that I’m a Catholic.” Harvard law professor and former US Ambassador to the Holy See Mary Ann...

Another day, another stunning blockbuster report that … Jesus was married! And to Mary Magdalene! The latest version of this meme comes from Simcha Jacobovici, an author and filmmaker who is famous for promoting stunning theories about Jesus that on further review often turn out to be dubious. Jacobovici’s new claim that he has decoded an old text that reveals Jesus and the Magdalene were married and had two kids (and she was a “co-deity” with her husband) came out this month and has also been widely dismissed. But as happened earlier this year with the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’s...

Jilted husband Kevin Cotter has turned the heartbreak of his divorce into a nice little profit by publishing a book full of ingenious ways to use his ex-wife's wedding dress. Kevin, 41, was crushed when his wife of 12 years walked out in 2009, taking all her possessions except the white silk gown. When he asked her to take the dress back, she refused and told Kevin to 'do what the f*** he liked with it'. So he did - and for the last four years he has come up with a series brilliant ideas and filled a book with...

VATICAN CITY — Children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, Pope Francis said, emphasizing that “the family is the foundation of coexistence and a remedy against social fragmentation.” The Pope made these remarks on Nov. 17, at the opening of the three-day international, interfaith colloquium entitled “The Complementarity of Man and Woman,” currently under way in the Vatican.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called out his fellow justices this week, expressing formal disappointment that the Court refused to hear several gay "marriage" cases. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court declined to hear marriage appeals from Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. In his statement, which was in reaction to the Court's decision to not hear an Arizona immigration amendment, Clarence -- who famously goes years between asking questions from the bench -- said that the Court should have heard the marriage cases. "We have recognized a strong presumption in favor of granting writs of certiorari to review decisions of...

The skies were ominously dark as the heavens opened. It was a downpour over the island of Nassau, in the Bahamas, just hours after the Nov. 9 plane-crash death of Myles Munroe, his wife and seven others. As far as anyone in Nassau was concerned, it was the only appropriate weather. Munroe was the senior pastor of the Bahamas Faith Ministries International Fellowship; he died on his way to a Christian leadership conference that he was headlining. When I arrived on Nassau only hours after the crash that tragically ended his life, the island was replete with shock, anguish and...

Just at first glance, and without looking it up on Google Translate, what is the difference between these two passages of a recent important Vatican document, the final “Relatio” from October’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops? “…confronto alla luce del Signore Gesù per discernere le vie con cui rinnovare la Chiesa e la società nel loro impegno per la famiglia fondata sul matrimonio tra uomo e donna.” and “…facing the situation, with an eye on the Lord Jesus, to discern how the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family.” A little pared down, perhaps? The official Italian original...

Before Thinking of Getting a Divorce, Watch This Video. It Might Save Your Marriage. Always give your marriage another try Garrett Johnson 06/11/2014Video captureThere are two foundations that can never be separated: love and memory. Just as a true disciple never forgets the first hour when the master touched his heart: “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon” (Jn 1:39) – and, as Pope Francis says, a believer is essentially “one who remembers“– so the same could be said for love and marriage.Today’s video, as all the videos that we post on Catholic-link, is beautiful to watch but is even more beautiful...

NEW YORK -- At a dinner sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation last Thursday (I am an unpaid national advisory board member), there was a debate about wealth redistribution. A team of Canadian students who think government should "spread the wealth around" faced off against a team of American students who think government has no business doing any such thing. The theme continued when former Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas) debated Chrystia Freeland, a member of Canadian Parliament. While all of this was informative, civil, interesting and at times entertaining, the final speaker, CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow, may have uttered...

This triangle of truisms, of father, mother and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it. – G.K. Chesterton Question to Canonist Ed Peters: If the Court presumes to equate our Matrimony, the Queen of Sacraments, with Sodomy; Can we not regard the action as having abrogated the terms of the civil rite, rendering what was formerly a mirror or echo of the essential Sacrament, now a ludicrous parody? Co-Author with Sherif Girgis and Robert P. George of “What Is Marriage“, Heritage Foundation speaker Ryan T Anderson, rather unilaterally “debated” some of this question with...

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday stunningly affirmed the rights of voters in four states – Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee – to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, throwing a boulder into the millpond of complacent assumptions by homosexual-rights advocates that same-sex marriage is a given across the United States. The U.S. Supreme Court recently has refused to take on any same-sex marriage cases, allowing the movement to expand into about 30 states. But Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, which has fought on behalf of traditional...

1994 ought to have brought freedom entirely, but that never happened. We never got Polygamy freedom. President Zuma has indeed proven that Polygamy can be practised in South Africa. President Zuma has been married at least five times. We now have to ask why South Africans opted to have selective freedom? Marriage can be by capture, by purchase or by choice. Obviously the majority would agree with me that marriage by choice is the favorable, however some broke men would definitely opt for Marriage by capture. Why would the majority opt for Marriage by choice, obviously they can easily hide...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said the church's marriage annulment process should be more efficient and perhaps even free of charge, and he decried any attempts to exploit it for profit. "Some procedures are so long and so burdensome, they don't favor (justice), and people give up," the pope said. "Mother church should do justice and say: 'Yes, it's true, your marriage is null. No, your marriage is valid.' But justice means saying so. That way, they can move on without this doubt, this darkness in their soul." The pope made his remarks Nov. 5, in a meeting with...

<p>Even Southern Baptists know not to turn down an invitation from the Pope.</p> <p>Rick Warren, senior pastor of Saddleback Church, and Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, will meet Pope Francis and offer an “evangelical Protestant” perspective as part of a Vatican colloquium on marriage and family held this November 17-19.</p>

The day my soul became Catholic was the day I found out that as a divorced and remarried woman I could not receive Communion. Tears of sorrow and joy flowed. Sorrow because I had by then grasped the truth of transubstantiation, only to find I couldn’t consume, and joy because at last we found the ground of real authority—his Church, the one he founded, the one tasked to keep all he taught her Apostles. I came to Catholicism from Calvinism. That’s a tough row to hoe if there ever was one. It was that prescient and beautiful encyclical Humanae Vitae...