Msgr Pope ping
Lots of analysis that misses the elephant in the room.
The truth is brutal as it is simple: Many women no longer want to be married.
60% of all divorces are initiated by women. Over 90% of divorces where the woman has a four year (or higher) degree are at her initiation.
Women have made marriage a lose-lose proposition for men. They’ll lose in divorce court, they’ll lose contact with the children. And let’s face facts: More and more American women are really unattractive, fat, mouthy shrews. Why would any sane man want to marry them in the first place? The Cardinal completely overlooks this development as he wants to keep his missive high and mighty sounding.
The number of young women who are absurdly fat has long since gotten out of hand - the a point now where they attack women who are in good shape who post pictures of themselves online. Young men are now getting way too fat as well, but the number of fat women under the age of 25 is utterly amazing to me.
I tell young men that the odds are stacked very heavily against them in marriage, and that the fastest road to the poor house is a divorce which can be initiated without any doing on the male’s part, and about which the man can do little to nothing.
srbfl
LIBERALISM: This "factor" has lead to all of the rest of the above, and yet, the Catholic Church never seems to get tired of supporting and promoting socialism instead of personal responsibility, free markets and private charity instead of government handouts.
For some reason, The Church is blind to the reality that fiscal conservative values are what promote conservative social values. They go hand-in-hand. Socialism destroys families just as it destroys Christians. The Church wants its cake and wants to eat it too. Doesn't work that way. And the recent commentary served up by the current Pope and Cardinal Dolan clearly show that Church leaders still have their heads stuck in the sand.
Lie down with dogs...
Another reason is that the cowardice of the American bishops is eating the heart out of the Church.
If Nancy Pelosi can march up and receive Communion, then Communion means NOTHING.
If Ted Kennedy can have a big, televised, splashy funeral, then it means NOTHING to say someone is a “Catholic.”
“Marriage is about children”
This is the anthropololgical view. and it is solid ground.
bump for later read
Welfare.
Ultimately state involvement. Many are conditioned to think it comes from the state, it’s just a contract that can be broken and resumed between any parties the state decides to include in its parameters. As far as the state is concerned the nature and rules of marriage can be changed instantly by the whim of judges, pols, or those that bother to vote in referendums. That’s all it is to many folks, and in that aspect I don’t find it surprising that many now lack respect for the institution. In fact, it’s pretty reasonable.
Pope Leo XIII saw all this coming down 130 years ago.
“Can anyone, therefore, doubt that laws in favor of divorce would have a result equally baneful and calamitous were they to be passed in these our days? There exists not, indeed, in the projects and enactments of men any power to change the character and tendency with things have received from nature. Those men, therefore, show but little wisdom in the idea they have formed of the well-being of the commonwealth who think that the inherent character of marriage can be perverted with impunity; and who, disregarding the sanctity of religion and of the sacrament, seem to wish to degrade and dishonor marriage more basely than was done even by heathen laws. Indeed, if they do not change their views, not only private families, but all public society, will have unceasing cause to fear lest they should be miserably driven into that general confusion and overthrow of order which is even now the wicked aim of socialists and communists. Thus we see most clearly how foolish and senseless it is to expect any public good from divorce, when, on the contrary, it tends to the certain destruction of society.”
FReegards
I was at the doctor’s office yesterday and saw a couple sitting side by side, but not talking to each other, instead each one looking at their own handheld device. It was amazing that I was able to keep my mouth shut.
A good rule of thumb in my marriage is less focus on the “me” and more focus on the “we” with God first and foremost.
Ping!
Contraception, Roe vs. Wade, and the sexual revolution (as the article points out) ruined marriage.
I have 3 daughters in their 20’s and I can tell you that the men in their peer group won’t even consider commitment until around 30 because they are enjoying the hook up culture that manifests in full force during the college years and continues well into the 20’s.
Lest I sound like a male basher, the women did it to themselves when they lowered the standard for men and the ones who wanted to hold the line were overwhelmed by the majority of women who went along. Very few men will continue a relationship with a woman who is waiting for marriage to have sex, and the pressure is enormous.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? The women who want to settle down and raise children in their 20’s when they have the energy and fertility to raise a decent size family are the ones who are paying the price because to conform is to now do the opposite.
The church needed to take a stronger stand in the 70’s and it’s too late now, the horse is out of the barn.
Sorry for the farm cliche’s, but they are accurate unfortunately.
“careers” are more glorified than family and children. Also today there is little ‘start from nothing’, got to have a two new cars, a furnished house, ample clothes and a few dogs. DINKs was an old term.