The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1907-07-12
CATHOLIC VIEW OF DIVORCE.

The Church regards marriage as the
most inviolable and irrevocable of all
contracts that were ever formed.
Every human compact may be law
fully dissolved but this. Nations may
be justified in abrogating treaties with
each other; merchants may dissolve
partnerships; brothers will eventually
leave the paternal roof. and, like Jacob
and Esau, separate from one another
friends, like Abraham and Lot. may be
obliged to part company, but by the
law of God the bond uniting husband
and wife can be dissolved only by
death. No earthly sword can sever
the nuptial knot which the Lord has
tied, for "what God hath joined to.
gether let no man put asunder."
The reckless facility with which
divorce is procured in this country is
an evil scarcely less deplorable than
Mormonism-ind deed, it is in some re-
spects more dangerous than the latter,
for divorce has the sanction of the
civil law, which Mormonism has not.
Is not the law of divorce a virtual
federation of Mormonism in modified
form? Mormonism consists in a SIM
ultaneous polygamy, while the law of
divorce practically leads to successive
polygamy.
1t is plainly manifest that the cancer
of divorce is rapidly spreading over
the community and poisoning the
fountains of the Nation. Unless the
evil is checked by some speedy and
heroic remedy the existence of family
life is imperiled. How can we call
ourselves Christian people if we vio-
late fundamental law of Christian
ity? And If the sanctity and indissol-
ubility of marriage do not constitute
a cardinal principle of the Christian
religion l am at loss to know what
does.
Picture to yourself the fearful
wrecks daily caused by this rock of
scandal, and the numEer of families
that are cast adrift on the ocean of
life. Grsat stress is justly laid by
moralists on the observance of the
Sunday. But what mockery is the
external repose of the Christian Sab
bath to home from which domestic
peace is banished, where the mothers
heart is broken, and the fathers spirit
crushed, and where the children can
not cling to one of their parents without
exciting the jealousy and hatred OF the
other And these melancholy scenes
are followed by the final act of the
drama when the family ties are dis.
solved and hearts that have vowed
eternal love and union are separated
to meet no more. The facility with
which marriage is annulled is most
injurious to the morals of individuals,
of the family, and of society. 1t leads
to ill-assorted and hasty marriages,
because persons are less oircumspeot
in making a contract which may after
wards be dissolved almost at will. 1t
stimulates a discontented and unprin-
cipled husband or wife to lawlessness,
quarrels, and adultery, well knowing
that the very crime will afford a pre-
text and legal grounds for separation,
1t engenders between husband and
wife fierce litigations a bout the custody
of their offspring. It deprives the
children of the protecting arm of a
father or the gentle care of mother,
and too frequently consigns them to
the cold charity of the world; for the
married couple who are wanting in
conjugal love for one another are too
often destitute also of parental affeo-
tion. In word, it brings into the
household blight and desolation
which neither wealth nor luxury can
repair.
This social plague calls for a radical
cure, aud the remedy can be found
only in the abolition of our mlschiev-
Gus legislation regarding divorce and
and honest application of the teachings
of the Gospel. .-Cardial Gibbons in
the Delineator,