by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
A new program that supports separated or divorced persons who with to remain faithful to the obligations of the Sacrament of Matrimony has been launched in the U.S.
The Saint Mary of Cana project, based in Italy and now sponsored in the U.S. by the non-profit Mary’s Advocates, helps separated spouses who are struggling with the loss of their marriage through a three step spiritual journey to renewed hope and peace.
According to the group’s founder, Maria Pia Campanella, these three steps include: “Reconstruction of the person who lives acutely the suffering of rejection, forgiveness of the spouse, and renewal of the marital ‘yes’ to God.”
In a recent interview with Zenit News, Mrs. Campanella, a 62 year-old retired teacher and mother of three, explained her motivation for founding the group.
“I have been married since 1968 and have been separated from my husband since 1990,” she said. “Despite the great sorrow, I understood immediately that I would not try to ‘remake my life,’ as the saying goes. However, I wanted to know the meaning of my suffering.
“What has really sustained me is daily Mass, the Word of God read every day, and personal prayer which I raise to God from my wounded heart. To this I have added reading of the documents of the Church on marriage, trying to understand the meaning of indissolubility in conjugal separation.”
Her own experience showed her that pastoral care for the separated was almost never geared to helping those who do not remarry, and never offered meditations on the sacrament of marriage.
“The group does not meet only to pray,” she continued, “but tries to appreciate the sacrament of marriage and reflect further on the meaning of indissolubility in the situation of conjugal separation.”
Mary’s Advocates is now seeking to work with dioceses in the United States in order to, in project director Bai Macfarlane’s words, “reject the divorce culture’s indoctrination that our marriage is dead or that we have new lives as single people.”
For more information, visit http://www.maryofcana.org
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