Marriage Crisis in Church and Society. Bai Macfarlane

by Bai Macfarlane

I recently spoke in Manhattan as part of a series on the crisis in the Church and society and how sacred tradition responds. My talk was about marriage, separation, divorce and annulment, and I pointed out that both the state and the Church are in similar crises. Neither’s leadership is defending marriage and the average person doesn’t even know the means by which both Church and the state are undermining marriage. The Traditional Knights of Columbus at The Shrine and Parish Church of the Holy Innocents in Manhattan NY hosted me on September 9.

Listeners heard how, with the non-profit organization Mary’s Advocates, I show abandoned spouses how to invoke the centuries-old canon law wherein the Church issued a judgement finding that one’s spouse was a malicious abandoner.  Too many have forgotten that the Church has exclusive jurisdiction over cases of separation and civil divorce. Specifically, no one is allowed to file for civil divorce or civil separation without one’s bishop’s permission (Read my sources here:  7.8 Bishop’s Intervention before Party files in Civil Forum)

Attendees were provided with several publications of Mary’s Advocates:

• 3-fold flyer, Separation and Divorce, Catholic Perspective
• booklet: “The Evil of Divorce and the Dignity of the Human Person – Understanding the Immorality of Divorce through St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body.” By Dr. Donald Asci
• booklet: Solemn Marriage Covenant in Anticipation of Marriage
• book: The Gift of Self, A Spiritual Companion for Separated and Divorced Faithful to the Sacrament of Marriage. By Maria Pia Campanella