May 20, 2013 – Catechism 2380 - 2386

I think many misunderstand the Church’s teaching on divorce.  It is not something where a person needs to stay in a marriage that is abusive.  As it says, there are canon rules that apply to situations and talks about separation or even annulments if they fit certain criteria.  But that is not most cases.  Most cases are people who just want something different.  I have never thought the real problem in this country is divorce.  I believe the real problem is the ease of getting married and the lack of preparations for marriage.  People who should never have gotten married are likely to get a divorce.  If over 50% of marriages end in divorce, that doesn’t say anything about divorce, I think it says more about the marriages.  How low would that percentage be if it were harder to get married and there was more prep for couples looking into it.

The fact that we have so many people cohabitating before marriage leads to a continued lack in people seeing the importance of marriage itself.  Ask yourself, if you are living together before you get married, what does the actual marriage ceremony add to your relationship.  It really changes nothing in your day to day life, so people fail to see its importance, they fail to care about its prep, and continue to get in marriages that they are not ready for and the cycle continues.  Marriage should be taken more serious, not less, but with our recent court decision, that is not likely to happen in this country in any foreseeable future.  The further we push the idea of marriage away from what is natural and its intended purpose, the higher the divorce rate is going to get.