Saving marriages must be a national priority

A good commentary from CNN contributor Roland Martin:

"For some reason, Americans are either getting married for the wrong reasons or are not making the effort to spend more time working on their marriages to save them, and instead, run to divorce court at the first sign of trouble."

Full column here.

A Father celebrates his parents' 50th

Fr. Tom Euteneur writes a lovely column on his parents' golden wedding anniversary.

Fifty Years of Grace and Blessing

''I Do'' Diligence: Five Financial Tips for Newlyweds

1. Discuss Financial Goals and Attitudes
2. Review Your Credit History and Debt
3. Update Beneficiaries, Will and Legal Documents
4. Create a Budget Together
5. To Commingle, or Not to Commingle

Full story here

EE mentioned in another marriage prep story

"Couples are responding. “Engaged Encounter,” a premarital retreat sponsored by the Catholic Church, is registering more couples of all ages and backgrounds, many of whom have no religious training or may not even profess to believe in God.

“The trend is that people are seeking out marriage preparation, recognizing that they should take a workshop before they get married,” says Nancy Fisher, an elementary school teacher who helps conduct weekend retreats with her husband, Michael.

Ordinary couples are becoming lay mentors, experts at communicating and modeling healthy relationships."

Full story

Sign of the times: Vienna to host 'divorce fair'

What an incredibly sad piece of news -- an AFP report says Vienna will soon be hosting what organizers say is the world's first 'divorce fair' later this month, aimed at couples "whose wedding dreams have turned sour and who need help in untying the knot as painlessly as possible."

While most exhibitors will be groups like lawyers, mediators, estate agents and life-crisis experts, there will also be some lectures that include things like a children's view of divorce to single-parenting issues.

So now we have wedding expos where brides and grooms can spend a day visiting thousands of vendors offering services for their wedding, and then they can visit a divorce expo where they can visit with vendors offering services for their divorce. It's too bad that we can't have "marriage expos" where people can gather and hear about the good side of marriage.

But I guess there's no money in that, is there?

Wedded to Work: Saving Your Marriage From a Demanding Job

On average, couples in which one partner is a workaholic divorce at twice the average rate, according to a 1999 study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's Bryan Robinson.

"In workaholic marriages, there's more marital estrangement; couples are emotionally distant from each other; and there are often thoughts of separation and divorce," says Robinson, author of Chained to the Desk: A Guidebook for Workaholics, Their Partners and Children, and the Clinicians Who Treat Them.

Full story

Bad marriage = bad health

"A lousy marriage might literally make you sick. Marital strife and other bad personal relationships can raise your risk for heart disease, researchers reported Monday.

What it likely boils down to is stress — a well-known contributor to health problems, as well as a potential byproduct of troubled relationships, the scientists said.

In a study of 9,011 British civil servants, most of them married, those with the worst close relationships were 34 percent more likely to have heart attacks or other heart trouble during 12 years of follow-up than those with good relationships. That included partners, close relatives and friends."

Full story

Marriage, family life are under attack, says Vatican official

A Vatican official urged a group of Catholic business leaders meeting in Colorado Springs to vigorously defend marriage and family life which he said are under attack by modern society.

"The dissolution of marriage and family is like the introduction of a cancerous virus," said Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

"Collapse will only be a matter of time. Can we afford to stand by and look in helpless silence?" he asked.

Full story

Children of divorce: Kids less likely to follow faith

Divorce often leaves children conflicted, confused and even bitter when it comes to matters of faith, according to Elizabeth Marquardt, author of the book Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives of Children of Divorce.

Marquardt, whose own parents are divorced and who is the director for the Center for Marriage and Families at the nonpartisan Institute for American Values, discovered that even children whose parents have a "good divorce" can suffer longstanding religious consequences.

Children of divorce are less likely to have had consistent involvement in a religious faith when growing up.

* Those who were active in a religion during childhood received little or no support from their church during their parents' divorce.

* In adulthood, children of divorce are much less religious than peers from intact families.

* Young adults from divorced families feel just as spiritual as their peers, but their spiritual journeys are more often characterized by loss and suffering.

Full story

Message in bottle: Marriage meant to be

"Melody Kloska and Matt Behrs take it as a sign they were meant to get married.

After tying the knot on a Lake Michigan beach on Aug. 18, they released a bottle containing their wedding vows. A few weeks later, the bottle was found by Fred and Lynnette Dubendorf, of Mears, Mich., who were also married on a beach — exactly 28 years before Kloska and Behrs."

Full story