The Irish standard., 1905-05-13
DIVORCE EVIL
Alarming Increase a Menace to
Society.
How a Proper Husband Nay be
Chosen.

Rev. Father Sheedy spoke to a very
large audience at st. Johns church,
Altoona, Pa, recently on the evils of
divorce. Before dealing with the sub
ject he answered an inquiry received
during the week from one of his
hearers. The writer asked for direc-
tion in choosing proper husband"
There was so much 'gratuitous ad-
vice." she wrote, now given in the
press and woman's journals on this
important subject that she was at
her wits end what to do" Father
Sheedy said that it was much easier
to say whom not to marry than to
indicate who was likely to make the
right kind of husband. He would
not have any self-respecting girl
marry drunkard, loafer or liber-
tine; far better to remain bachelor
maid to the end. He would not have
girl marry for love only; for love
often dies and unless there is some
higher purpose or aim married life
becomes unbearable. Community of
interests, and that includes both par
ties of the same religion, similar
ideals and tastes, these are essential
to happy marriage. The girl who
consults her own mother and an ex-
perienced spiritual director is least
likely to make mistake in "choos-
ing the proper husband" Most girls,
! however, will probably do the same
as their mothers and grandmothers
did before them, no matter what ad-
vice is sought or given.
Referring to mixed marriages, those
between Catholics and non Catholics,
he said that reason and experience
as we'll as the law of the church,
pronounced against them. Some turn
ed out happily, but generally speak
ing it was otherwise. He pointed out
the reasons why it was so.
Taking up the subject of the even
ing, he quoted the text of st. Mathew,
xix, G. what God hath joined to-
gether let no man put asunder" He
said in part:
Because we have overlooked this
obvious teaching of the Divine Foun-
der of Christianity divorces have
multiplied, even among protesting
christians. Let us see where we are
and whittier we are drifting. Let me
begin with a definition.
There are two kinds of divorce
limited and absolute. Limited divorce
is the separation from bed and board
while the marriage bond still exists.
This kind plays but an insignificant
part in the divorce proceedings Of the
country, nor is it attended by the long
train of evils which follow upon the
other. Absolute divorce is defined by
our legislators as "the disruption, by
an act of law, of the conjugal tie made
by competent court on due cause
shown" The effect of this divorce
is not only to make the parties to it
Independent of one another as re-
CARDS the custody and care of chill
dren, habitation, property, and other
civil effects of marriage, but to
restore them to the state of single
persons, commonly with the right
to enter into new marriage contract.
1t is this absolute divorce that has
obtained such foothold in the United
States and fills conservative people
from President Roosevelt down, with
alarm; it is with this kind we are
dealing.
Let us look briefly at its history in
our country. In colonial days divorces
were rarely heard of. They were al.
most exclusively granted by special
acts of colonial legislature, and as this
procedure was necessarily slow, ex'
pensive and quite public, divorces
were few. But since the beginning
of the republic legislative divorces
have everywhere fallen into disfavor
and judicial sentences have supplant.
ed legislative acts. Each state now
enacts its own laws on the subject,
the federal government having juris-
diction over divorces only in the Dis
trict of Columbia and the territories
not yet admitted to statehood. AS a
result we have at present within the
limits of the United States about half
a hundred codes of divorce laws. Be.
sides, jurisdiction over divorce cases
is usually conferred, not on special
courts, but on the ordinary law
courts-district, circuit, superior or
inferior, as the case may be, and as
these courts grant divorces on trials
or hearings at each county seat, there
are nearly 5000 courts scattered over
the length and breadth of the land
where with little or no formality man
may and daily does put asunder what
God hath joined together.
So good friend of the United
States as James Bryce, in his work
Jurisprudence and History" calls at
tention to a truth which cannot be
too much emphasized at the present
time. He pertinently remarks:
trrho not;oo,1 ,>,orrocc of Tho ,,yor1d 4