What if God doesn’t have that “one thing” in store for you? What if He has a different plan for your life, or at least that one aspect of it? What if, despite your fervent efforts and prayers, the story doesn’t end the way you want it to?

The Church is full of women who have had abortions. Some of them have repented, some haven’t. Some have processed the pain, some haven’t. Some have just buried the pain so deep in their subconscious that they wouldn’t know how to access it if they wanted to.

So, if a woman is looking for a man with money, is she a practical minded mother-to-be or a gold digging shrew?
First of all, I always hesitate to speak for "women." I can speak from my own experience, and…

Remember when I wrote that column about how the single life isn't really a vocation, in the "Capital V" sense that the Church talks about? And remember how some of you were all grateful, and others were all mad and…

So I thought I was all done with annulments, but based on the emails I've been receiving from all of you, I apparently need to do one more to "clean up" a few remaining issues.
I've done a lot of…

The following is an actual Mary Beth conversation:
Me: I can't date him. He's not Catholic and he's divorced. In the eyes of the Church he's still presumed to be married.
Other Person: Well that's okay. He can just get…

So apparently you all like talking about annulment.
No big surprise, really. Most single Catholics — at least those of us "of a certain age" — deal with the subject either directly or indirectly in our dating lives.
I have…

Annulments are confusing.
In the past I tried to give you a general overview of what annulment isn't ("Catholic divorce") and what it is (a determination that a sacramental marriage never took place). Then I promised you answers to a…

The questions around divorce, annulment and remarriage in the Catholic Church are huge issues for nearly all of us. Obviously, there are many, many people who are back in the dating world after having been married. And those of us…

On the list of my top ten pet peeves, that question is a serious contender for the #1 spot. (It's right up there with tailgaters and people who talk about themselves for 45 minutes straight without ever taking a breath.)…