Marriage! Annulment! Sex! Sacraments! Symposium Roundup Part I UPDATED

Marriage! Annulment! Sex! Sacraments! Symposium Roundup Part I UPDATED July 3, 2014

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Our Summer Symposium on the Synod is off to a great start (and there will be more to come, through next Wednesday!) and there are enough interesting topics and great pieces to keep you going, even if your holiday weekend is rained out! What you can’t find on the symposium landing page you should be able to find on the channel page, and quite a few pieces are embedded within the text of this post, but let me help you out by category, too!

Getting Familiar:

What is a Synod? What is it about?
Kathy Schiffer: Synod in the Modern Church: History and Hope
What Should We Expect? Will Doctrine Change?
Tim Muldoon: on The Gospel of the Family Part I and Part II
How Can I Personally Prepare for this Synod?
Billy Kangas: What the Synod on the Family is, and how you can prepare!

Divorce, Remarriage, Annulment, Communion

Getting the Straight Poop:
Mary DeTurris Poust Calling it “Catholic Divorce” Wholly Misunderstands the Healing
Elizabeth Scalia “Amnesty” or Necessary Mercy?
Dr. Gregory Popčak Reforming the Annulment Process–Brainstorming Solutions
Brandon Vogt interviews Cardinal Thomas Collins
Seriously, Why Do Communion Rules on this issue Matter?
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry: How I Changed My Mind On Communion For The Divorced And Remarried
What is the “Orthodox Option?”
Joanne McPortland: A very good question, and Joanne McPortland is tackling this very complex issue!
Related: 10 Myths About Annulment
Elizabeth Scalia, One family gone from church because of divorce and poor catechesis

Importance of Marriage

Sometimes Things Just Don’t Work Out, Right?
Russell Shaw: Unity in Marriage Justifies Strong Medicine
What Practical Steps are Being Taken to Encourage Marriage, Then?
Diocese of Brooklyn: Working an Effective Outreach to Co-habitating Couples
What About Same-Sex Marriage?
Sr. Hyacinthe Defos du Rau, OP (UK): Three Questions in the Name of Love

Learning the Faith

Why Don’t We Know this Stuff?
Jennifer Fitz: Adult Catechesis on the Thorny Issues that Make People Hate the Church
Related: What’s Really Wrong with Catholic Religious Education? Everything! from Soup to Nuts.

Family, Family, Family! What’s so Great About Families?

Sometimes, Not much!
Margaret Rose Realy: Writes the Painful Dysfunction
But in Reality, it’s Everything.
Dr. Gregory Popcak: Why is the Family so Important? Well, this and this and this
Family Places You and Means You Are Known:
Rebecca Hamilton: I am Sister Lily’s Granddaughter: Where I’m From, That Counts for a Lot
Catholic Families are on A Mission from God
Elizabeth Duffy: The Mission of Families in Reconciling the Family
Mark Shea: Catholic Social Teaching and the Icon of the Family
Tod Worner: Who Writes Letters to Families? The Catholic Church, That’s Who!
Related: An Illustration of Why Fathers Matter

What about Sex? Don’t Catholics Hate Sex?”

No! Married Sex, Chastity, it’s all Virtue!
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry: Let’s Talk about Sex
No, but Stress does Happen!
Hallie Lord: Sex Advice: Lead Us Not Into Google
No! We Find it Happy and Holy and Infallible
Dr. Gregory Popčak: Holy Sex! What Catholcis Can Teach the World about Infallible Loving

Oh, Then Bring on the Babies! Um, Wait!

Does the Church Mean it When it Says She Wants Them?
Calah Alexander: I Believe! Help me to Obey!
Grandma Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Who Helps These Young Parents?
Lisa Hendey: Women and Children: Pastoral and Material Assistance to Mothers, Single and Married
Do We Baptize the Children of Sinners?
Calah Alexander: Hindrance vs Hope: Why Baptize if the Parents are in Sin?
Okay, but About the Breastfeeding…
Jennifer Fitz: Yes, Please, Even at Mass!

Well, That’s everyone then, yes?

Made Room for the LGBTQ Community?
Kelley Cutler: Pastoral Care of the Queer Person: Questions for the Synod
Heeding the Teaching
Gabriel Malor: Born this Way: The Church of Faith and Science

So, Who Do We Get to Purge from the Family, Then?
Nobody, Not Even One Person
Ben Conroy: (Ireland) Euthanasia: A Further Erosion of Familial Understanding

Further Reading:
Deacon Greg Kandra: How would a Married Priesthood affect the Catholic Family w/ followup.
Dwight Longencker: Responds
Mary Eberstadt: A good book for Synod Prep

We’ve made a good start, yes?

UPDATED Round-up Part II: And here a roundup of late-publishing pieces, demonstrating that we also made a good finish!


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