Marriage today does not enjoy the kind of structural, social support that prevailed in other periods of our history.  Today, married households constitute a minority of US households, suggesting that Catholics can no longer take for granted that there is a “natural” progression from young adulthood to marriage and family life.  On the contrary, the choice to marry is itself a countercultural choice.  Catholics can view marriage as a summons to a particular practice of the spiritual life—to enter into communion with another (a consortium omnis vitae, or “communion of the whole of life,” as in Canon Law).  Marriage, then, is an intentional decision to cultivate a spirituality of communion in contrast to prevailing tendencies toward fragmentation in much of US society: technological/virtual; consumerist; racial/ethnic; sexist; et cetera. 

The symposium will bring together theologians and pastoral ministers to discuss how Catholics can promote and support marriage across generations.  It will inquire about best practices in the remote and proximate preparation of young people for lives of generosity in marriage; it will also explore how Catholic communities support one another in living out married lives.  It will offer specific pastoral recommendations to the US Bishops as they discern the themes in their pastoral letter on marriage; and it will offer an impetus to those engaged in pastoral ministry to develop resources for various forms of ministry.