January 21, 2015 – Excerpted from Put Out Into the Deep, Bishop DiMarzio’s column in The Tablet:

My dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

The Final Report of the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, which will serve as a preliminary document for next fall’s Synod on the Family, gives us much thought for consideration. I would like to focus my attention in this column on the proclamation on the Gospel of the Family.

The Gospel of the Family can only be proclaimed when we look upon Christ who initially gave the Good News of salvation to the world. The Divine Pedagogy was meant to bring the family, and especially marriage, to a higher and more perfect order recognizing the gradual preparation in God’s revelation regarding marriage and the family.

We begin in the Book of Genesis where it is proclaimed that God made male and female, “A man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and the two become one flesh.” (Gn 2:24) Throughout the Old Testament, we see a gradual development in the understanding of family. In Jesus’ revelation, we recognize that He goes beyond the law of Moses which allowed divorce for certain reasons. In Christ’s teaching, marriage was brought to a new level where it truly cannot be dissolved for any reason.

Read the full text of the Bishop’s column on The Tablet website.