HARDIN, Ill. 28 August 2016 (ORCNS) - Monsignor Douglas is a priest with a mission - help young couples get started right in marriage. "I don't like young couples going to judges and getting married," he says, "The Church is the best option." The Very Rev. Mgr. Douglas Deffenbaugh v. Aschaffenburg, who is also Chancellor of the Court of St. Mary of Walsingham, has been helping couples for years start their life together with a sacramental Christian marriage. In fact, he has even married two generations of the same family - the parents and one of the children.
Some of the couples he finds are military (Deffenbaugh is a U.S. Army veteran and served in Afghanistan - he continues to serve in the Church's Walsingham Guard). With looming deployments, some military couples plan to handle their marriage at the courthouse. When Mgr. Douglas hears that, he offers them an alternative. Usually they take it.
What drives Mgr. Douglas? After all, it isn't unusual for a priest to perform weddings. Deffenbaugh cited a decline in morality that goes with declining religious participation in the United States. "I am just doing my part to fix that in God's name," he said.