Lucia Silecchia , professor, law, published an essay on siblings in U.S. Catholic. See below.

From: U.S. Catholic Date: July 28, 2016 Author: Lucia Silecchia

Concerns of the family have been front and center recently, both within the church and society at large. Last year's Extraordinary Synod on the Family generated much discussion, with a consistent emphasis on marriage and parenthood as the foundation for family life.

That's all very well and good. However, the bonds between husbands and wives and parents and children also create another set of relationships: the bonds between siblings. And this sibling relationship is often overlooked in public discussions of the family.

Siblings are on my mind as I prepare to celebrate the feast day of St. Martha on July 29-one of my favorites! St. Martha is among the New Testament's most famous siblings. She squabbled with her sister, mourned her brother, and with them offered Christ friendship and the "many details of hospitality" for which she is so well known. (I suspect, unscientifically, that she may have been a middle child.) We know little more about this trio except that they were sisters and brother to each other and beloved friends of Christ. ...

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