MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 30, 1 March 1909, Page 4

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE.

" JIISOHIEVuUS " LEGISLATION DEPLORED, PASTORAL BY ARCHBISHOP REDWOOD.

A New lear Pastoral lias just been issued by His Grace Archbishop Redwood, which deaLs with the subject of the family and divorce. After referring to the Divine authorship of the marriage relation, the Archbishop contrasts the status of woman under pagan and Christian conditions. In ancient Greece '• the wife was looked upon, not as the human creature, man's like and companion, but as a means to an end, as an evil which could 'not be escaped, in order that there might be house and children. Her in-1 telloctual education was disregarded, and hence her influence over husband and children was slight : even the rich were not taught the accomplishments which form the charm of home." When the vices oi all nations invaded Rome, the 1 characteristic Grecian vice reigned supreme. "Jit short, when the Roman Empire had reached its height, as the virtues of women were never so ran l , so

the respect for women had sunk to its lowest point." Among the Persians. marriage was debased by polygamy and divorce were already customs, and. while the former were lacitly alhwed. the latter was expressly regulated by the law. Thus, on account of the hardheartcdness of the peopli'. the pure idea of marriage was defaced. In all oilier

nations of the East anil South the degradation of woman was univer-al. except among the noble German vaicc, which supplied later on the raw material of Christendom. The restoration of the society of man a-.id woman rested on the Incarnation, being in all Us parts a copy of that great fact. Marriage was the' transition point from man as an individual to man as a race. The Incarnation put tire zeal on the individual and on society. The Church had rolled back the tide' of pollution in the world, and established the basis of all social life, the unity and indissolubility >of marriage. | TENDENCIES OF THE TIME. " And now." His Grace continues. " we live in a period of entirely different tendencies. Not Kings only, not the rich and the noble, but society such is striving to emancipate itßelf from any law but one self-imposed—a law, not of

Christ, but of its own, with parts gathered from paganism, and parts retained from Christianity, the end of which, as it conceives, would lie social ease and comfort, material wealth, and worldly prosperity. Humanity, with the resources bestowed upon it by centuries of Christian faith and practice, rises up against anything above itself. It calls law the expression of the general will, not the command of One reverenced as superior, not the choice of One loved as good. Before this spirit of self-will assuming the guise of liberty, and sweeping over modern nations as the (lame over the prairies, the Church maintains still the self-same law of marriage, as the last defence of the weak against the strong, the last rampant of the family and of society against their invaders."

DIVORCE AND PROTESTANTISM. But outside of Roman Catholic Church, the Archbishop claims, is found no civilised nation, no uncivilised tribe of man, in possession of the complete Christian marriage, its unity, sanctity, and indissolubility. Divorce prevail* in a. frightiul degree, and with appalling increase in Protestant nations. Even the Oreek ;l ud Russian communions allow it." Yet, "marriage" (he declares) "' is the gem of human society ; the family, tribe, nation, are but expansions of it in one line ; the village, the town, the city, the league, the Empire, are but aggregations of it. It is the spring of man's social growth, the point at which individuals combine to make the race. Accordingly, a false idea of it corrupts the whole social structure. Never was there a people great or good in which the marriage bond was defective. a i'l,aw:e that calls for cuke.

" The social plague of divorce calls for a radical cure ; and the remedy can be found only in tire abolition of our mischievous legislation regarding divorce, and in an honest application of the teachings of the 'llospel. If persons contemplating marriage were persuaded that, once united, they were legally debarred from entering into second wedlock, iliey would be more circumspect before marriage in the choice of a life partner, and would be more patient afterwards in bearing the yoke and in tolerating each other's infirmities. Besides leading to ill-sorted and hasty marriages, divorce stimulates a discontented and unprincipled husband or wife to lawlessness, quarrels, and even adultery, well aware, that the very crime will afford a pretext and legal grounds for a separation. H raises fierce litigations between the parties about the custody of their offspring. It deprives the children of the protecting arm of a fulhi'ror the gentle care of a mother, and too frequently consigns them to the cold charity of the world ; for lack of conjugal affection usuallv accompanies lack of parental love. in short, it fills the household with blight and desolation, which no wealth or luxury can repair. SPURIOUS PHILANTHROPY.

"Nor is the Catholic Church, in proclaiming the absolute indissolubility ol marriage, open to the charge of cruelty. She merely enforces the observance of the law of her Divine Founder, and His law, however rigorous, is mercy compared to the cruel consequences of easy divorce. It is spurious philantrophy and false philosophy for legislators, in their insane endeavour to improve on Divine teaching, to lose sight of the interest of the race and of society while they devise means lo elevate the hardships of individual eases. Cases of married infolicitv are indeed plentiful, but it is boiler to legislate for the good of the community than to degrade the community to the level of the individual. "Our duty, then, in common with all Christian believers and true friend" of civilisation, is to deplore the havoc wrought by divorce laws of this and oilier countries—laws which are fast loosening the foundation of society. Our duty is to inculcate that such divorces are powerless in conscience. Our duty is to teach Catholics to enter into marriage through worthy and wholly motives, and with the blessings of religion, especially with the blessings of the Nuptial Mass. Then, far from wishing for means of escape from their union, they will regret that it can be dissolved even hv death."