Free Republic

Man 'torched £350,000 home to stop his wife getting it in divorce' By CHRIS BROOKE Last updated at 00:57am on 21st November 2007 A furious husband burnt down his £350,000 home to stop his wife receiving it in a divorce settlement, a court heard. Gary Hooley, a builder, had previously threatened to "knock the house down brick by brick" during one of many heated rows with his wife Michelle. With the short marriage heading for divorce, he set fire to the house they shared in a callous act of retribution committed while drunk, Sheffield Crown Court was told. The detached...

Pak-Taleban shave wedding singers’ heads, moustaches Web posted at: 4/13/2007 10:1:29 Source ::: AFP PESHAWAR, Pakistan • Taleban extremists shaved the heads and moustaches of a troupe of Pakistani singers, then clashed with a marriage party and took six hostages, officials and witnesses said yesterday. The Islamists intercepted the musicians overnight near the conservative northwestern town of Lakki Marwat where the group was due to perform at three weddings, local police said. After beating the troupe and smashing up their instruments, the militants then shaved the performers’ heads and moustaches, a witness said. Early yesterday the angry hosts of one...

Man wins divorce from wife 'too shy' to sleep with him DPA, TAIPEI Monday, Feb 12, 2007, Page 2 A Tainan court has granted a man's request for divorce because his wife was "too shy" to consummate their marriage, a newspaper said yesterday. The man surnamed Chen (’Â), a 38-year-old teacher from Tainan County was introduced to a woman surnamed Lin (—Ñ), 29, also a teacher, by a matchmaker. After the couple dated for three months, they married a year ago, but Lin refused to consummate the marriage, the Chinese-language daily China Times reported. On the wedding night, Lin slept...

A Romanian priest wants women to pay a "white-dress fine" if they're not virgins when they marry. Father Petrica Bratu, 37, says he hopes the fines will stop couples from living in sin. Couples who had just moved in together would pay about $20 but brides who were pregnant or had children would pay about $120. The average Romanian salary is about $200 per month.

Wondering about that muffled howl you’ve been hearing the last couple weeks? It’s the sound and fury of feminists reacting to Michael Noer’s latest exegesis, Don’t Marry a Career Woman. Noer’s column, which ran at Forbes.com, surveyed marriages in which the wives doggedly pursue a high-powered career, all the while neglecting family and home. The research shows these women are more likely to be unhappy if she earns more than the guy, or if she quits her job and stays home. Either way, she’s going to be a grump. Her husband is more prone to be discontented if she is...

Defensor Matrimonii - St. John Fisher On 22 June 1535, St. John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, England, who had been just made Cardinal Priest of Saint Vitalis by Pope Paul III, was beheaded on Tower Hill in London. Officially, he had been convicted of treason for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as the new head of the Church of England. This was, however, a culmination of an eight year battle that St. John fought with the king over his marriage with Queen Catherine of Aragon. In the summer of 1527, Bishop Fisher was summoned to Westminster Palace for an...

Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de SalesChapter XXXVIII --Counsels to Married People.Source: Ecatholic2000.comMARRIAGE is a great Sacrament both in Jesus Christ and His Church, and one to be honoured to all, by all and in all. To all, for even those who do not enter upon it should honour it in all humility. By all, for it is holy alike to poor as to rich. In all, for its origin, its end, its form and matter are holy. It is the nursery of Christianity, whence the earth is peopled with faithful, till the number of the elect...

Twenty-five years ago, most men in the Tampa Bay area married by age 35. But since 1980, the number of never-married men 35 to 55 has jumped sevenfold. ST. PETERSBURG - On the eve of his 50th birthday, Robert Mendenhall was trying to decide whether to spend the big day with someone new or with his ex-girlfriend. She had held his interest the longest: eight months. Mendenhall, who works in regional sales for a roofing and window company, hangs out with half a dozen never-married men in their late 40s and early 50s. They are successful at their jobs, keep...

WHISPERS WITH BIAS ....would be Rocco Palmo's Indian name. ... He reports on a blessing ceremony at the Cathedral of Vienna, where homosexuals where also blessed. His account, however, deliberate or not, is not quite accurate in the most crucial question. OK, it seems that St. Blog's will want some 'splaining on this one.... Gay couples were apparently included in the Valentine's Day liturgy at the Stephansdom in Vienna, and it's being hung around Schonborn's neck like an albatross. Well. Schoen langsam, Rocco. I've read the German article. What happened? Valentine's Day blessings (not a Mass) for "people in love",...

Over a casual dinner, Rachel Kaplan turned to her boyfriend and asked, "You're open for a prenup, right?" Darren Waldohlz, 38, a partner in a successful speed-dating business, admits he was caught off guard. But he said he realized a prenuptial agreement would protect the house he owns, too. "It's not that I plan to get divorced," says Kaplan, 23, a single mom from Fort Lauderdale, who has a sizable inheritance. "I have to protect myself and my daughter." While men are still more likely to seek a prenup, "women are becoming a more dominant force," said attorney Alan Braverman,...

Wedding brawl ends in arrest By Maria J. Flora maria@jrpress.com A wedding day brawl ended in the groom being hauled to jail still kicking, police said. Police were twice called to the Ramada Limited where the arguing couple was spending their wedding night last week, according to court records. Angela Tripp was still in her wedding dress when police arrived, Crawfordsville Police Lt. Harvey Barton said in a probable cause affidavit. Her husband Travis R. Lee, 30, was wearing jeans and offered their ripped-in-half marriage license as identification, Barton said. Angela’s neck was red and she told police Travis hit...

A new Vatican instruction on annulment is not expected to change existing practice in the United States dramatically, but it falls short of reforms that many American bishops and canonists hoped for which would have made an annulment faster and easier to obtain. Those reforms were contained in a second draft of the document, which seemed on the brink of publication in 2003. After debates within the Vatican, however, the draft was sent back for revision, and in the end several significant provisions sought by Americans were eliminated or watered down. The instruction, titled Dignitas Connubii, was issued Feb. 8...

On July 2, I wed my lovely bride, hellinahandcart. Please celebrate with us.

Marriage and the Natural Law Father Trigilio began his discourse explaining how marriage is founded upon natural law, which defines it. Thus, to try and fit any union other than that of one man and one woman into a marriage defies its essence. "[To call anything other than the union of one man and one woman marriage] would be the same as if someone tried to tell you that two plus two was now going to equal five," Father Trigilio said. "In science and mathematics, we would not tolerate someone not telling the truth, but when it comes to theology...

Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston, in a statement released yesterday, appeared to anticipate violence by those opposed to the onset on Monday of gay marriages in Massachusetts. The archbishop called on Catholics to avoid "anger against or vilification of people, especially our homosexual brothers and sisters."... The prelate's comments came the day an open letter also calling for restraint from violence was released by a group of about 100 Catholics, including members of the Boston Priests Forum and some who had opposed the Church's stance on gay marriage. Some pro-marriage activists said on Thursday they resented the implication that they...

A woman who was married to four men at the same time by the age of 23 was jailed for six months yesterday. Judge Peter Thompson described Amileannya Carmichael, a part-time model, as "a very predatory female". She repeatedly changed her name on her marriage certificate to avoid detection and left her fourth husband heartbroken after only a few months when she moved in with one of his friends. Judge Thompson told her at Ipswich Crown Court: "It is important the public knows that marriage is upheld as an institution by the courts. Marriage is still an important component of...

ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome Code: ZE03121222Date: 2003-12-12Talking to Teens About God's Plan for Sex and Their LivesJason and Crystalina Evert Share Testimonies Regarding ChastitySAN DIEGO, California, DEC. 12, 2003 (Zenit.org).- More than 100,000 teens each year hear God's plan for life and love, thanks to the efforts of Jason and Crystalina Evert. The Everts are a newlywed couple and chastity speakers who work for Catholic Answers and visit high schools -- public, Christian and Catholic -- around the country. Jason Evert, author of "If You Really Loved Me" (Catholic Answers), shared with ZENIT how their young...

Statement by the President On Marriage November 18, 2003 STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT Marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman. Today's decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court violates this important principle. I will work with congressional leaders and others to do what is legally necessary to defend the sanctity of marriage.

Forty years ago, a study called the Hammond Report analyzed the smoking habits of half a million people. Its conclusion: Smoking is dangerous to one's health. It was a warning that ended up on every pack of cigarettes sold. Ten years later, a researcher took another look at the Hammond Report and found something that had been overlooked -- something just as hazardous as a pack-a-day cigarette habit -- that is, divorce. As Linda Waite and Maggie Gallagher write in their book, THE CASE FOR MARRIAGE, an enterprising Surgeon General might wish to slap a warning label on divorce decrees,...

Why Has The Holy See Written a Document Against Homosexual Unions? Secretary of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Responds VATICAN CITY, AUGUST 1, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Why has the Holy See published a document, clearly articulating its negative ethical judgment on those laws that give legal recognition to homosexual unions? Salesian Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and, together with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, signatory of the document, answered the question in this interview with Vatican Radio. The document "Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons," of a...