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To: sinkspur
I sometimes wonder if some Catholics live in the real world. I've worked with the Marriage Tribunal, on and off, for 30 years.

I worked for 3 years with one of the formost secular researchers in marriage and family. He's neither Catholic, nor (more than nominally) Christian, but his work is heavily relied on in Catholic marriage preparation (as well as that of other Christian denominations). Being one of a two person IT team working for him, I got to see a LOT of data he gathered.

Yet not a thing I saw refuted traditional Catholic teaching about marriage and family. What it demonstrated most clearly was that people were simply "hooking up" and calling it marriage. They weren't making mature, serious, and deep commitments to one another. His data showed they frequently had never even discussed whether they wanted to have children before marriage.

In my opinion, that's the divorce (and annulment) problem in a nutshell. People taking marital vows without even knowing what marriage means are likely to find themselves unprepared for marital responsibility. It is no mystery why Catholic teaching about marriage and family looks alien to marriages like that.

249 posted on 09/09/2003 5:17:25 PM PDT by Snuffington
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To: Snuffington
People taking marital vows without even knowing what marriage means are likely to find themselves unprepared for marital responsibility. It is no mystery why Catholic teaching about marriage and family looks alien to marriages like that.

Well, most dioceses require some preparation, including a compatibility profile and some discussions with mature married couples.

Pastors have to insist on this; I'd imagine some parishes take it more seriously than others.

My wife and I work with about five engaged couples a year, and, over the last five years, we've had serious reservations with three of them.

Two ended up breaking their engagement before they got married; the other couple got married and I have no idea what happened to them.

255 posted on 09/09/2003 5:41:15 PM PDT by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from a shelter. You'll save one life; you might very well save two!!)
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