The Catholic Letter

As reported by the Catholic News Agency, the U.S. Catholic Bishops have recently launched a website designed to help in a health marriage 'for people of all faiths'.  This, in its core, is a good idea I guess; but why do the Catholic Bishops feel they should address peoples of all faiths when it comes to marriage advice? The advice given to a Catholic should be given to everyone, but generally only Catholics would understand.  General advice that could be followed by people of other faith or no faith at all will be incomplete and could be down right wrong for Catholics. 

There is one page on this website titled "10 Important Research Findings On Marriage And Choosing A Marriage Partner".  While every one of these 10 might be true when analyzing the general public, what relevance do these statistics have for a Catholic thinking about marriage?  Being Catholic Bishops, shouldn't the focus be on Catholics?  A Catholic couple might become discouraged by reading these statistics, especially on a website developed by Catholics, when in reality Catholicism might be the only thing they need for a happy, life long marriage. 

This site does contain a large amount of good information about marriage for Catholics but I think they should at least add side notes in the areas where they discuss issues that do not apply to Catholics.  For instance they indicate that Children are their choice on this page; this isn't so in a Catholic marriage.  When married in the Church the couple promises to accept children as God sees fit.  All Catholics should be made to understand this.

If you ask me the U.S. Catholic Bishops should spend some more time on educating their parish priests about how to prepare a young couple for marriage; I personally know several couples that wanted a Catholic marriage for social status and were never told some of the most important aspects of a Catholic marriage like having children, use of contraception, PRAYER, etc...