Does Welfare Reduce Abortion?

from HLI's Pro-Life Talking Points Series

The connection between welfare and illegitimacy is well-established: Social scientists have long documented that when women are paid to have children out of wedlock, they are more likely to do so. [...] America’s illegitimacy rate has continued to rise and reached 40% of all births in 2007, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Read More...

Enlarged Family

by Giorgio Campanini

The concept of the "enlarged family" traditionally refers to a way of living together, in a community, adopted by family groups, generally linked by ties of blood and by the unity of their life style. For human groups, this way of uniting themselves together in order to share responsibilities and resources, while maintaining a certain autonomy (unlike the "patriarchal" model), has always existed, in the course of history. Read More...

Family and Philosophy, The

by Hayden Ramsay

The attacks which human beings and the family suffer today are in large part the result of confusions of language. These confusions refer to fundamental questions: person and individual, equality and identity, liberty and lawfulness, pleasure and happiness. They are at the same time a consequence of a reconsideration of marriage, which is the foundation of the family. Read More...

Family Values Versus Safe Sex

by His Eminence Alfonso Cardinal López Trujillo

The mass media have circulated news that I granted an interview to the BBC, which was broadcasted last October 12, 2003, on the eve of Pope John Paul II’s 25th Anniversary in his service as Bishop of Rome. On that occasion, I answered different questions for more than an hour, especially those dealing with the family. But, surprisingly, what was shown from the whole interview on the BBC Panorama’s film, Sex & The Holy City, were merely three questions of less than half a minute each, the answers to which were certainly much more complete. The program apparently tried to deliberately and systematically criticize the Catholic Church for supposedly contributing to the death of people by not allowing the use of condoms to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. Read More…

Indissoluble Marriage?

by Francesco Di Felice

From the Old Testament to today, the questions of divorce and the indissolubility of marriage have raised debates. Jesus brought to them insights which historical and exegetical studies have shown to be uncomfortable. The ubiquitousness of divorce has further brought to light the "provocative" character of the Lord's teaching. For those who wanted to set a trap for Jesus, divorce was only the unilateral act of a man's will, who renounced the exercise of his rights on a woman. Read More...

NFP, Isn't That Rhythm?

by Rev. Paul Marx, O.S.B.

Natural means of fertility control have been a life-long interest of mine. Even in the seminary (1942-47) I wondered why the Church didn't intensively research and teach the theology and methodology of Natural Family Planning (NFP); then as now, birth control was an enormous problem. Teaching marriage preparation courses for years at two Catholic colleges only enhanced my interest in NFP, as did giving many retreats for young married couples after the war. They used to call me "Father Rhythm" and "Father Temp" at St. John's University in Minnesota. Over the years I sponsored eight international symposia on NFP, still misunderstood as the "old rhythm" method so often today. Read More...

Traditional Family

by Sergio Belardinelli

The expression "traditional family" has in itself a substantial ambiguity. At least at first glance, in fact, the adjective "traditional" recalls the past, the family of yesterday, a type of family that in many ways no longer exists: the so called "extended" family with many children, grandparents that live under the same roof, a rigid distribution of roles, a more or less marked subordination of women, quite linear intergenerational relationships and social functions taken for granted, developed by a sort of automatism. Read More...