Catholics should find a way to welcome couples whose paths to the altar don't go straight down the center aisle.

Catholics should find a way to welcome couples whose paths to the altar don't go straight down the center aisle.

Catholic schools are filling in the teacher gap with new grads looking for a challenge.

As a national leader in Catholic family ministry and faith formation, Mary Jo Pedersen has encouraged preventive care for marriage through workshops, publications, and retreats. She recently retired from 25 years on the staff of the Family Life Office of the Archdiocese of Omaha. Pedersen embraces it. "Marriage is life's most important work, ultimately,” Pedersen says.

Mary Sue Williams and Cathy Miettunen lived just a few blocks apart in a tree-lined, middle-class neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota when both went through the Catholic Church's annulment process following their civil divorces. Williams and Miettunen belonged to the same parish, Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Maplewood, Minnesota, and both still do.

For most Catholics marriage is their path to holiness, says this expert. The church could-and should-do more to help them on their way.

Are cohabiting Catholics always "living in sin"? Two respected family ministry researchers argue "no" and suggest the recovery of an ancient ritual for those moving toward marriage.  

In July of 1999, a group of marriage-imrpovement gurus made a pilgrimage to the University of Notre Dame to celebrate 50 years of the Christian Family Movement. Publisher Sheed & Ward helped mark the occasion by printing a history of this modern movement heard round the world, a revolution of a different sort that got its start on American soil.