Philip M. Wagner founded the Texas Catholic Marriage Project out of a conviction that marriage and family law must give serious attention to children’s dignity, their need for stability, and the responsibilities of both parents.
His interest in these questions grew from personal experience with divorce and its consequences for family life. That experience prompted a sustained examination of Texas family law, constitutional protections, Catholic teaching, and the relationship between civil marriage and religious obligation.
Through TCMP, Philip brings these subjects together with research on child development, attachment, and family relationships. His work asks how laws and judicial decisions affect the people who must live with their consequences—especially children—and how responsible reform might better protect marriage, parental responsibility, religious liberty, and family integrity.
Philip’s guiding principle is straightforward: justice begins with the dignity of the child. He established TCMP to advance thoughtful research, public education, and informed discussion grounded in that principle.
The Texas Catholic Marriage Project examines how civil law affects marriage, parenthood, religious obligation, and the security of children when a marriage is challenged by divorce.
The Project approaches these issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. Family law cannot be understood adequately through legal doctrine alone. Marriage simultaneously involves legal status, parental responsibility, moral obligation, family relationships, religious commitments, and the developmental needs of children.
TCMP therefore brings together:
TCMP is an independent initiative. It does not speak for the Catholic Church, any diocese, parish, tribunal, governmental institution, court, or political organization unless an express affiliation is stated.
Its purpose is research, education, public discussion, and reform.
The Project gives particular attention to marriages involving children.
When civil dissolution is requested, the State may alter a legal and family structure that previously joined two parents and their children within one household and one system of parental authority.
Those consequences justify careful examination of:
TCMP asks these questions directly and without assuming that existing law necessarily provides the final answer.
