CV NEWS FEED // More than 200 people converged at Benedictine College over the weekend to face the reality of declining marriages in today’s culture and discover hope for the future.
CatholicVote previously reported that Benedictine hosted its 14th annual Symposium on Transforming Culture in America March 21-22. This year’s theme was “Marriage on the Peripheries.” Attendees at the conference heard from theologians, marriage experts, priests, scholars, and others regarding the state of marriage and families in America.
Some presenters provided statistics to highlight the urgent need for strong marriages in today’s culture, and others shared wisdom and advice for maintaining a Christ-centered relationship.
Notably, highlighted speakers included JP de Gance, president of the marriage ministry Communio; Catherine Pakaluk, researcher and economics professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.; and Brad Wilcox, author of Get Married: Why Americans Should Defy the Elites, Forge Strong Families and Save Civilization.
>> Communio Ministry Combines Faith and Strong Data Analytics to Save Marriages <<
Matthew Muller, the director of the symposium and a theology professor at Benedictine, told CatholicVote that the discernment for choosing this year’s theme was guided by two factors. Organizers wanted to honor and celebrate the work of Kansas City Archbishop Joseph Naumann, who is retiring this year. Naumann’s priorities in his episcopacy have included the “renewal of marriage and family life,” Muller said. In addition, the Vatican recently published a document, Catechumenal Pathways for Married Life, that highlights the need for more robust marriage preparation.
Conference attendees included people from all walks of life, including married couples, priests, religious, Benedictine students, and even several babies brought by their parents. In several of the presentations and keynotes, presenters emphasized that the theme of marriage applied to everyone present, not just couples or those preparing for marriage.
Sister Mary Augustine Warrell, a professor at the University of Saint Francis in South Bend, Indiana, underscored this point in a reflection on the universality of the family as the domestic Church.
She said that the impact of marriage and family life is relevent to all. Called to spiritual marriage, her training and formation during her childhood affects her spiritual motherhood.
“When marriage is in crisis, we’re all in crisis because we all come from those families … wounds that aren’t healed are transmitted,” she told CatholicVote.
Monica McCoy, a junior at Benedictine who is currently engaged, said that the symposium gave her a lot to think about as she starts marriage preparation. She said that the sacramental and sociological aspects of marriage especially struck her.
“Kind of the biggest takeaway from the whole symposium I think would be just … the focus on marriage as a sacrament and marriage as something that is good and holy — and how marriage succeeds as a sacrament because of the graces we are given,” she told CatholicVote. “Marriage is very hard and marriage includes a lot of suffering and includes carrying your cross, but because Christ elevated it to a sacrament, we’re given graces to take that cross.”
She also said that the symposium on the role of marriage in society motivated her to do her part in building up the sacrament.
“I’m excited to begin a marriage, to start a family, God willing,” she said.
Benedictine College President Stephen Minnis told CatholicVote that the symposium gathered “the best thinkers on marriage and family to try to find the best way forward for this crisis in our country.”
“St. John Paul II said the future of a nation passes by way of the family,” he said. “It was exhilarating seeing the nation’s leaders in marriage and family on campus planning to do great things to help more people enjoy the benefits that come from loving marriages and stable households.”
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