WHY GET MARRIED IN THE CHURCH
QUESTION? / COMMENT!
How do I empower and support my husband to follow-through with marriage through our Catholic Church. We are currently only married via Civil Ceremony, we are both Catholic, and have been married less than 2 years. Additionally, I told a brief story about the first time I heard Mr. Romero speak at a young adult retreat when I was 18 years old. I believe this was around the time that he was first starting to evangelize. Then, I repeated the story he shared with us that day of him "talking about God over his police radio" and how that story really impacted me. I also told him that it was truly a blessing to hear him speak again that day after about 20 years in the most unexpected place, and the most unexpected time.
Can you please provide me with facts that will help support and strengthen my position on why it is necessary for my husband and I to get married in the Catholic Church, in order to truly validate our marriage in the eyes of God.
ANSWER! / COMMENT!
1. Greg & Julie Alexander House 1-877-613-9408 www.thealexanderhouse.org. They area Catholic couple that do Marriage Counseling and Marriage coaching over the phone.
2. www.fathersforever.com - Statistics and Solutions for keeping Fathers in Marriage.
3. http://maritalhealing.com/ - 'Institute for Marital Healing' Strengthening Catholic Couples.
4. www.catholiccounselors.com (Dr Gregory Popcak, director of the [Catholic] Pastoral Solutions Institute).
5. http://foryourmarriage.org/ (U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops)
*Praying for your partner promotes fidelity. A study entitled “Faith and Unfaithfulness: Can Praying for Your Partner Reduce Infidelity?” discovered that praying for a partner actually reduced the likelihood of infidelity - Match Made in Heaven:Couples Who Pray Together Stay Together | Psychology Today
*Dr David Stoop writes: The National Association of Marriage Enhancement, in Phoenix, Arizona (www.nameonline.net) did a study and reported that when couples prayed together on a daily basis, less than 1% of those couples would end up getting a divorce. The numbers were 1 out of 1,156. Pretty amazing when the divorce rate in the general population is reportedly around 50%.
Practicing Catholics have the lowest divorce rate. Dr Janet E. Smith, professor of philosophy at several Catholic Universities has published many academic journal article's along with 2 books:
1. Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later (Catholic University of prestigious America Press, D.C. 1991).
2. Why Humanae Vitae was Right: A Reader (Ignatius Press). Both of these books contain her research on Marriage but the statistic is documented in the 1st book. On page 127 & 391 it says, “Among spouses teaching Natural Family Planning the divorce rate is 1.4%. It is estimated that the divorce rate for all couples using Natural Family Planning my be up to three times this number, or 4.2%, which is still less than a tenth of the national divorce rate.”
It is no coincidence that the greatest havoc in Christian Marriage in history has accompanied the acceptance of birth control. Since Margaret Sanger introduced artificial birth control in the United States in 1916, the divorce rate has increased by 500%.
The current divorce rate for new marriages is about 50%...those following the Church’s teaching and avoiding all forms of artificial birth control have a divorce rate under 5%
(Christian Fatherhood, Steve.Wood p.129).