A dear friend of mine, a marriage and family therapist who is married with seven children and many grandchildren, recently articulated the profound injustice of divorce. The decline of marriage and family, it seems to me, should be the Church's number one social concern, both for her own good and the good of all humanity. Here is my friend's clear thinking on why "God hates divorce" (Malachi 2:16):
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"The nearly universal collapse of marital morality among Catholics is far and away the most serious social justice problem in the Church. Children have a fundamental right to be born in the loving, permanent marriage of their parents, so that they can have the physical, economic and emotional support needed to thrive. Right now, nearly 40 per cent of children in the US are born into illegitimacy, which is a huge predictor of poverty, educational failure, criminal arrest, mental disease and future marital failure. Divorce plunges millions of women and children into poverty every year.
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"The breakdown in marital morality is also a major contributor to sexual and physical abuse of children. Children living in a home with a parent and a non-parent partner are eight times more likely to suffer abuse. The emotional damage and inadequate supervision of children in broken homes also renders them vulnerable to predators outside the home.
"All our efforts to combat poverty, to address and prevent abuse, are as nothing in the face of this society-wide pestilence raging in our parishes and families.
"The Church needs a profound examination of conscience, repentance and amendment of life on how our failure to keep Christ’s commandments is wounding and killing children. The serious obligation to keep one’s marital vows and the sinfulness of breaking them is certainly the timeless teaching of the Church, spoken by the mouth of Christ himself."
"All our efforts to combat poverty, to address and prevent abuse, are as nothing in the face of this society-wide pestilence raging in our parishes and families.
"The Church needs a profound examination of conscience, repentance and amendment of life on how our failure to keep Christ’s commandments is wounding and killing children. The serious obligation to keep one’s marital vows and the sinfulness of breaking them is certainly the timeless teaching of the Church, spoken by the mouth of Christ himself."
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