California Catholic bishops are launching a yearlong initiative to celebrate and encourage marriage and families through educational resources and parish-based resources, citing attacks on marriage and the decline of faith in the Eucharist as the reasons behind the initiative.
“Our culture has been wounded by the erosion of an authentic vision of love, sexuality, and marriage,” Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco said in a July 30 press release.
The “Radiate Love” initiative takes inspiration from the miracle of Jesus turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana, because Jesus “believes marriage is beautiful and worth celebrating,” the website says.
“Under the title ‘Radiate Love,’ the bishops of California invite all to reflect on how the communion of husband and wife is an icon of the Eucharist, where Jesus invites us to a supernatural union between our humanity and his divinity,” Cordileone said.
The initiative features monthly reflections by California bishops on marriage and the family as well as ways that couples, families, young adults, parishes, and ministries can “radiate love.”
For instance, married couples could go on a date night together, pray together, or learn about fertility awareness, the website suggests. Young adult ministries might offer a book or Bible study, host a “Theology on Tap” event, or host a film screening about topics relating to dating, marriage, and relationship skills. Parishes might offer blessings for married couples and families or invite married couples to marriage ministry.
“There’s an urgent need for churches to adopt new strategies to restore marriage and improve fatherhood,” explained Mario Martinez, director of the San Bernardino Diocesan Office of Marriage and Family Life, in the release. “Healthy marriage is a lifetime commitment that requires continuous effort, communication, and mutual giving and support.”
The initiative features monthly themes such as “The Adventure of Commitment in October,” “Bring on the Wine!” in January, and “Love is a Verb!” in April.
“Marriage reflects the abiding work of both God’s creation of humanity and God’s redemption of humanity. The union of man and woman reveals the transcendent, self-sacrificing, and life-giving orientation of the human person when we are most truly the image of God,” said Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto, who chairs the California Catholic Conference Marriage Committee, in the press release.
“In sacramental marriage, their complementary communion truly communicates divine wisdom and mercy to one another and the world,” he continued.
Bishop Joseph Brennan of the Diocese of Fresno shared his own family experience.
“My parents came from two different backgrounds, two very different schools of thought on faith, values, and commitment,” he said. “Yet, despite their differences and in the early 1940s, when the world seemed to be falling apart, they came together and, encouraged by the greatest priest I have ever known (my uncle), they committed to a belief in a world full of hope and promise and radiated love by raising me and my nine siblings with a model of faithfulness, goodness, and perseverance that continues to permeate the newer generations of my family.”
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“The institution of marriage is held dear by God,” the bishops wrote in a letter highlighting that marriage is “a model for how he loves us and how we are to love him and every neighbor.”
“Today, however, many despair of marriage. Marriage rates are declining,” the bishops noted. “It is increasingly seen as an unattainable luxury by poorer and marginalized Americans. And the ties between marriage and children are breaking, with unfortunate consequences.”
“Virtually every culture in every age has greatly supported stable relations between men and women and the children they bear. That is marriage,” the letter continued. “And today, we have overwhelming empirical evidence across the ideological spectrum justifying this preoccupation.”
“In the words of Pope Francis, the complementarity in marriage and family life is ‘a great treasure… a thing of beauty,’” the bishops added. “It answers human longing for enduring love, is a boon to vulnerable children, the bedrock of a healthy society, a driver of freedom and social equality, and one of God’s most precious gifts to the human race.”
