Episode 242: a Conversation about Marriage with Dr. Perry Cahall (August 24, 2022)

This week (August 24th, 2022) on The Open Door we discuss marriage and the family. Our welcome guest is Perry J. Cahall of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio. He is the Academic Dean of the School of Theology and Professor of Historical Theology. Dean Cahall is the author of Living the Mystery of Marriage: Building Your Sacramental Life Together (Hillenbrand Books, 2020), a book whose primary audience is engaged and newly married couples, and The Mystery of Marriage: A Theology of the Body and the Sacrament (Hillenbrand Books, 2016), a book written for use in seminaries and universities.

Among the questions we will ask are the following. Please feel free to suggest others!

1. Perry, if we may, could you please tell us a bit about yourself and your family?

2. What is the history and mission of the Pontifical College Josephinum?

3. How did you come to teach at the Josephinum and become a Dean?

4. What led you to write about marriage?

5. Is marriage a social construct? If not, just what is marriage?

6. Is “homosexual marriage” a contradiction in terms?

7. What explains the sharp decline in Catholic marriages over recent years? Is marriage fundamentally less attractive in Western culture?

8. Why do the media present at most a token number of happily married people with children?

9. How is marriage a call to holiness?

10. Just what is responsible parenthood?

11. Can marriage and celibacy be complementary?

12. What counts as “family politics”? How might a political party foster family politics?

For Dr. Cahall's book, see https://www.amazon.com/Living-Mystery-Marriage-Building-Sacramental/dp/159525045X/

This unique book will assist those called to marriage to live out the wonderful, beautiful, and challenging mystery of married love by presenting a theology, spirituality, and morality of marriage at a widely accessible level. Dr. Perry Cahall encourages both engaged and married couples to understand the real nature and purpose of marriage as God has created it. He includes insightful Self-Discovery discussion questions to help couples process presented information. Questions That Might Be on Your Mind will also engage the reader through the real world issues couples confront today. This will also be a useful resource for priests, deacons or lay ministers engaged in marriage preparation; diocesan offices of marriage and family life; Pre-Cana instructors, and leaders of sponsoring couples programs. This book will also provide seminarians and those preparing for the permanent deaconate a foundation of the Church s teaching as well as an introduction to Pope St. John Paul II's Theology of the Body.