Beyond Divorce
May 2, 2016 Issue
Helen M. Alvaré
Divorce! Catholics!
Needless to say, the 263 pages of “The Joy of Love” (“Amoris Laetitia”) treat a great deal more than these two topics. Here in the United States, we should pay particular attention to those sections that intersect with several of the deepest cracks in the foundations of our marriage and family lives, even a few topics that cause many to squirm.
First, it will come as a great relief to everyone who worries especially about the future of children that the pope is exhorting the Catholic Church to “go big” toward building stronger marriages. Many people are looking to the churches for help at a time when U.S. federal and state governments not only do little to assist children to know and be known by their stably married parents but rather powerfully lend their authority otherwise. Whether by refusing even to slow down nonconflictual divorces involving children, or by promoting nonmarital sex as pro-woman, or by prohibiting linking children with marriage recognition, the state proclaims loud and clear that it has not the slightest interest in the unique way marriage protects children. Children need a mammoth advocate. Pope Francis suggests that it’s us.
Second, while Pope Francis is clearly no Pollyanna respecting the state of marriage, still he appears confident that Catholics can help. This should encourage the discouraged. He acknowledges that some people call marriage “evil” or judge children less valuable than consumer products. He knows the church’s reputation for “blow[ing] the whistle” on great sex. Yet he reminds us repeatedly that younger people still glimpse the promise of marriage, and he illustrates throughout “The Joy of Love” the beauty of a long-lived marriage.
http://americamagazine.org/issue/beyond-divorce
