Episode 28: The benefits of marriage and stable families, with Dr. Brad Wilcox

Your podcast hosts Dr. Grazie Christie and Ashley McGuire are joined by Dr. Brad Wilcox, a distinguished researcher who writes on marriage, parenthood, and cohabitation, and the ways that marriage, gender, and culture influence the quality and stability of family life in the United States and around the world.

They discuss the importance of fatherhood in the life of children; the benefits of growing up in an intact family, and of marriage (and marrying early!); ways to lower the divorce rate; cohabitation; and more.

Dr. W. Bradford Wilcox is Director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia, Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Family Studies.

https://thecatholicassociation.org/podcast/ep-28-the-benefits-of-marriage-and-stable-families-with-dr-brad-wilcox/r
_______________________________________________________________

1. Lebanon’s Discontent Has Religious Roots, The country was founded as a haven for Christians but has lost its purpose.

By Robert Nicholson, The Wall Street Journal, November 1, 2019, Pg. A13, Houses of Worship

After World War I the French established Lebanon as a homeland for Christians who had been hiding in its mountains since the advent of Islam.

…
The distinctive expression of Lebanese Christianity, the Syriac Maronite Church, was an Aramaic-speaking Eastern rite affiliated with the Western See of Rome.

…
Hence the fundamental source of Lebanon’s instability: Though built as a Christian state, Lebanon has become less Christian over time. The discrepancy between law and fact grows more glaring. Already on the eve of independence in 1943, Lebanon was little more than a Christian-Muslim power-sharing experiment. Since then, the growing Muslim majority has sought to cast off the control of a shrinking, frustrated and increasingly paranoid Christian minority.

…
Lebanon can’t be a Christian state: That ship sailed in the 1940s. If Lebanon serves no purpose distinct from its neighbors, why should it exist? The failure to answer this question lies at the heart of the country’s instability, harming Christians and Muslims alike. Without a cogent sense of national identity and a vision for its future, Lebanon’s economic and political decline—and its manipulation by foreign powers—will get worse.

Mr. Nicholson is president of the Philos Project.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/lebanons-discontent-has-religious-roots-11572561155
_______________________________________________________________

2. Pope’s words ‘difficult to reconcile’ with Vatican’s lack of cooperation with abuse inquiry.

By Charles Collins, Crux, November 1, 2019

It was “very disappointing” the Vatican failed to give testimony during an investigation into sex abuse in the Catholic Church in England and Wales, according to the lead counsel to the inquiry.

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) investigation into the bishops’ conference’s response to the sex abuse crisis is taking place Oct. 28 – Nov. 8, and there has been frustration with the lack response from the Holy See to requests for information.

“The Holy See has not provided any evidence about the role of the CDF and/or laicization and declined to provide the inquiry with a witness statement,” Brian Altman, the inquiry’s lead counsel, said on Monday.

The requests were made to the Vatican ambassador to the UK, Archbishop Edward Adams.

https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/11/01/popes-words-difficult-to-reconcile-with-vaticans-lack-of-cooperation-with-abuse-inquiry/
_______________________________________________________________

3. Border Mass a reminder ‘we are called to live in communion’

By Christopher White, Crux, November 1, 2019

While immigration remains a political flashpoint in the United States, Catholic Church leaders continue their efforts to stand with migrants in the face of opposition and will once more come together on both sides of the border with a Mass this weekend.

On Saturday, Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso will celebrate the Mass, along with Bishop Peter Baldacchino of New Mexico and Bishop Guadalupe Torres of Ciudad Juárez, in Mexico.

The Mass on the border is the latest of high-profile public events meant to spotlight the plight of migrants at the southern border, where earlier this year Seitz personally accompanied asylum seekers from Mexico to the U.S. after they had previously been denied entry.

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2019/11/01/border-mass-a-reminder-we-are-called-to-live-in-communion/
_______________________________________________________________