IVF?

After viewing the dateline special on IVF and reading the US Catholic article about IVF, what are the pros and cons of IVF?  How does the Church's teaching about IVF inform your opinion?  Does the financial cost of IVF affect your opinion on the morality of the practice? 

Abortion: Why isn't this a national outrage?

As you have read in the article about Kermit Gosnell, what is your reaction to the current trial?  Did you know about this case prior to our class discussions?  Why do you think this has not been a large, national story?  Note the role of race and economic status... does that impact why the national media has been less vocal (if this were on the Main Line, would the reaction be different)?  Please note the article contains some grisly details, so you are best suited to scan the article...

The Changing Face of Marriage

Family life is full of major and minor crises — the ups and downs of health, success and failure in career, marriage, and divorce — and all kinds of characters. It is tied to places and events and histories. With all of these felt details, life etches itself into memory and personality. It’s difficult to imagine anything more nourishing to the soul. — Thomas Moore 

 

As the composition of marriage and families continue to change in the twenty-first century, we are reminded of the call from the second Vatican Council:

"The Council further recognized the dignity of marriage by declaring that families were genuinely “Church.” The Council restored the ancient concept of “domestic church” as it declared: “In what might be regarded as the domestic church, the parents are to be the first preachers of the faith for their children by word and example” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, #11).

The early Church began in house churches, where families were the heart of the communities and from which ministers were first called to use their personal gifts to serve the needs of the larger community. The family is the most intimate experience of Church, the place where love, forgiveness and trust should first be encountered. This is the family Church, whose members are called to embody Christ in everyday life. (http://www.americancatholic.org/Newsletters/VAT/aq1004.asp)"

What has been your experience of the 'domestic church'?  Based on what you've experienced in your own life or seen on television/films, what are some pros/cons of the changing structure and composition of marriage and family?  Finally, some good news- a study of marriage and college degree done by the Pew Trust in 2010 suggested that those with a college degree are less likely to experience divorce and multiple marriages than those without a college degree.  Read more here .

What does that mean for you?  Do you feel compelled to someday establish the domestic church in your home?