#12702 What Does It Mean That Marriage Is Sacred? Healing and Virtue - Gregory Popcak
Catholic Answers Live
Catholic Answers
4.8 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
“What does it mean to say that marriage is sacred?” This question opens a discussion on the profound nature of marriage within the Catholic faith. Additional topics include how to support adult children during a parent’s annulment and navigating challenges in a marriage with an irreligious spouse. The conversation also touches on fostering virtue and healing after divorce.
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Questions Covered:
- 01:35 – What does it mean to say that marriage is sacred?
- 14:40 – I’m new to the Catholic faith. I have adult children, have received an annulment, and am getting married. How can I help my non-Catholic adult children deal with the fact that the Church is saying their mom and dad were not really married.
- 20:25 – I’m struggling with my husband who is mostly irreligious (nominally Lutheran) and very controlling. He doesn’t seem to be very interested in being part of the family. People tell me I shouldn’t stay in the marriage.
- 33:49 – As a friend of someone who recently went through a divorce, how can I bring my friend into a closer relationship with God, and help in healing from the divorce. He practices the faith but does not have a very close relationship with God.
- 41:29 – How can a wife approach her husband about growing in virtue. She is nervous about asking him to do something that would require him to sacrifice.
- 48:42 – I’ve been separated from my husband for 20 years. He is finally going to counseling, but won’t do marriage counseling because he says he needs to work on his own trauma first. Any advice?
- 53:10 – How does one learn to prepare for marriage? I’ve been married almost 40 years and wondering how to teach this to my kids.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Buying or selling your home, real estate for life can connect you with a pro-life real estate agent. |
| 0:05.2 | When Real Estate for Life receives a referral fee, they donate 65% to Catholic Answers. |
| 0:11.5 | Learn more at realestateforlife.org. Welcome back to Catholic Answers Live. |
| 0:33.6 | We just had a great conversation with Adrian Lawson of Sips with Sarah about the beauty of the Catholic faith. |
| 0:39.6 | And now we are going to bring it over to another particularly beautiful aspect of our faith, which is the sacrament of marriage, holy matrimony, which is, you know, it's the foundation of society marriages. |
| 0:51.2 | It's what it's what facilitates God's first command to man, be fruitful and multiply |
| 0:57.4 | and fill the earth. And anything that fulfills that command has to be sacred. And here to talk |
| 1:03.2 | about that with us is who better than Dr. Gregory Popchak, founder and executive director of the |
| 1:09.4 | Pastoral Solutions Institute, and of course, |
| 1:12.1 | you can find him and his work at Catholic Counselors.com, along with him and his wife, Lisa Popchak. |
| 1:19.4 | He is the author of books such as For Better Forever, a Catholic guide to Lifelong Marriage, |
| 1:25.9 | and How to Heal Your Marriage and to heal your marriage and nurture lasting love. |
| 1:29.8 | Dr. Gregory Popjack, thanks so much for joining us again on Catholic Answers Live. |
| 1:33.9 | I'm thrilled to be here, Thomas. Thank you. |
| 1:35.7 | Well, let's get right into it. So what does it mean when you say that marriage is sacred? |
| 1:41.8 | And maybe first, like, what does sacredness mean and how does that apply |
| 1:44.9 | to marriage? Well, sure. So Thomas Aquinas would say that that sacredness, something that was |
| 1:51.7 | sacred was something that's set apart for God. And so the point of, the idea is, of course, |
| 1:56.7 | that marriage somehow sets us as husband and wife apart for a divine purpose, which is, of course, |
| 2:02.7 | to learn how to love each other the way God is calling us to love. You know, I love, I love my, |
| 2:07.7 | I have lots of love in my heart for my wife, but I don't have the first clue how to love her |
| 2:12.1 | the way that's actually loving. And I certainly don't know how to love her in a way that God wants |
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