The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1908-02-29
PRIEST SHARPLY
ASSAlLS DIVORCE

The lecture on Marriage" by the Rev.
Father Gueymard in the basement of the
new Catholic cathedral on Sunday even
ing drew an audience that was not only
remarkable for numbers but for the vari-
| ETY. in the character of those attending.
! Babes in arms, cooling and laughing up
! at young parents. lettering old men and
women, straining with aged, dulled ears
to catch the speakers words, fashion
| ably dressed matronS croWding meek lit
/ tie women with shabby ShaWlS over their
| heads, laborerS in Corduroys sitting be-
| side faultlC ssly dressed youths. all were
| represented in the thousand people who
crowded into the bare, cellarlike place of
worship to listen not only to a gifted
| speaker but to the commands of the Ro-
man Catholic church as regards one OF
| the most important of the SacramentS.
! The lecture and musical program were
under the auspices of the Knights of Co
! lumbus and given as an additional treat,
| the musical program was rarely enjoy
able, both solo and chorus work being
exceptionally fine.
Rev Father Gueymard began his adj
! dress by mentioning the quality of the
membership and the purpose of the or
| ganiZation of the Knights OF Columbus.
| He mentioned among the objects of the
| society the open profession of the Cath
| Ollie faith, the popularizing of Catholic
| teaching and the breaking down of any
barriers of prejudice and the dispelling of
any misunderstanding that may exist in
non Catholic minds against Catholic in
StitutiOnS, through the practice of char
liable acts. by exhibition of good feeling
and kindness and by friendly relations
with their fellow citizens. He then spoke
of the great esteem veneration and af-
lection in which Bishop Seaman is held
throughout the west by Catholic and non
Catholic alike.
Coming to his subject. Father Guey-
mard said that views on marriage which
he was giving were not, strictly speaking,
111rI p1irrl1f
be applied as well to any Christian fam
lily without respect to creed. He said, IN
part:
ceremony might be. as unpretentious as
poverty might make it, that act by which
man and woman become united is one
of the most solemn, most beautiful and in
its consequences the most far-reaching
compact to which two mortals could en-
ter both as regards their individual posi-
ton in life and their duties and RESPONSE
bilities as citizens of a state and members
of society.
The Divorce Evil.
'.Show me a community where family
life is regular, where everything breatheS
an atmosphere of order and virtue, and
shall show you q community where law
is supreme, where political principles are
righteous and where social life is vir-
tuous. There will be disorderly MEM
bers here and there, just as there are
will stand like the few distorted limbs
in a well pruned grove, or will lie like the
neglected pools on the banks of living
stream. But show me community
where families are vicious, criminal or
immoral, and I shall draw you a sketch
of an earthly hell and picture for you the
nearest semblance of damnatiOn. And the
family, my friends, is primarily const-
tutsA in that act of marriage when
man and woman stand before an altar and
pledge their body and soul with the nat
ural fruits thereof to each others keep
ing Here is a foundation stone in the
tenple of state. a pillar in the social ed-
flee an ornament in the house of God.
IF weakness, faithlessness and fickleness
are the consulting architects. then the
winds of passion will wreck the temple.
tho adifice. as if it were house of cards.
IF these consecrated ties are so, binding.
If II is so essential that these promises
be so sincere, if it is SO important that
these obligations be so serious, If a dis
intepration of this union be such men
ace. is it not right that the church should
condemn this want OF tidel1ty 10 sworn
promises that she should froWn coIdiy
on This absence of fealty and loyalty eX-
hibited in divorce courts and in those re-
marriages that turn the sublime scene into
the stage settings of farce?
But you with your weallh OF W .IIs
rarhang from a quickly generated money
making literature with Judgment framed
on a basis of a selfish individual enjoy
ropnt perhaps Will d petICi SCiil
ment' your sympathy for those who.
though carelessly vet innocently nave
formed unhappy aliiances-you may an
swer. But if they have not found their
AFFINITY il those two hearts no longer
heat as one. if their nature, temperament
and disposition are discordant | might
answer in the words of st; Matthew
What God has bound together let no
man mt asunder' | might quote from
paul the apostle. For the woman that
hath an husband whilst husband Invest is
hound to the law; but If her husband be
dead she is loosed from her husband.
might quote your own words, spoken with
traInblfng lips at the altar. u take thee
for nv lawful wife. to have and to hold
from this dav forward. for better. for
worse for richer. for poorer, in sickness
and ia health. till death do US part
might show how this very obligation mas
raisnd woman to the commanding position
she now holds wnen man. stronger by ma
fire more rugged. more independent
driven by stronger passions, must recog-
nize in her not the wanton whom ne may
20 eft off with a shrug, a thing 10 be used
momentarily and then stunned. but the
mother of his children. the anger OF ms
household. the sharer in his fortunes, by
whom he must abide as long as spark
az honor haunts his manly breast. and
vet 7 shall simply answer that this IS a
Solemn contract, and the most valuable
matter of the contract has already been