College President Dr. Timothy O’Donnell spoke on the family as a Domestic Church. “There is no doubt that the family, as we know it, is under attack. Everyone has an obligation to prayerfully read Familiaris Consortio, such an important and beautiful Church document on marriage and the family.

“In the first world today there has been almost a total failure in communicating the saving truths found in Church teachings about the family,” O’Donnell said. “And this has been a failure not so much in the family, but a failure on the part of the institutional Church to communicate effectively and faithfully Papal and Conciliar teachings.”

He continued: “Divorce remains today a hidden evil that few want to speak of because so many have been wounded by it, but we are not telling the whole truth about men and women if we do not speak about this. Divorce was regarded as a scandal because it implied that Christ could be separated from His Church. A merely natural love will not keep marriages together today. Couples need to frequent the sacraments of Confession and the Eucharist.”

O’Donnell highlighted many of the attacks that the family is under today. “Feminism in its militant form is essentially demonic,” he said, “because it tears apart and rends asunder what God meant to be joined together. “These days there’s more devotion to Lost, 24, or American Idol than there is to the family rosary,” he lamented. Concluding O’Donnell challenged the audience, “If we as a Church in this country do not speak clearly and emphasize the centrality of marriage—this great sacrament—who will?”