The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-03-13

-"@lOliC Is piaCcC Cn SAFE al lne
James Clarke church goods house. ca
california street. Denver Colo.
eN~~~So~~SN~S~>~~~~~~~~~
The annual Leuten pastoral letter ol
Bishop \. c. MatZ touching on rlar-
riage and divorce. created nuln n.ttl-
est outside religious circles AID has
been extensively discussed aincae lay
men who deplore tns CONSTANT in
creasing proportion If d;& urres. The
pastoral letter. directed {" the ra.lous
churches i'm the diocese OF BcIrtI was
read last Sunday throughout "a, state.
Some congregations EeaI1 il an tart,
the conclusion TO come les. Sunday,
and others received il - IT'S trt.r"ty
Some of the striking paragraphs from
the pastoral follow:
Divorce Is a frightful ctncor which
is at this moment eating out tie heart
Of the American people.
Would you have proof Of :hc ruth
of this statement? A dispatch from
Washington, dated Nov. % l9O7. 10 the
Associated Press. reads as follows:
That divorce is two and one-Ealf times
AS common in The United States as il
was iorty years ago. and that one mar
ria2e in twelve nowadays ends in Ii
Vorce, are concllsion- reached by Ctfi-
Gals of the census bun eau in a new
compilation OF statistics If marriage
and divorce, covering the wears from
1887 to 1906, inclusive. Tn the t,c,rrV-
year period covered by the la.ic,, in
vestigation there have oe.n ~ -. 0A4
marriages. in the same time there
nave been 945,625 divorces. AVnr1 the
hrst investigation was instituted forty
years ago, divorces occurred at the ,ate
OF 10000 year; now the annual rate
IS $4,000 The report adduces statistics
10 show that divorces are now fncreas-
ing three times as fast as the popula-
tiOn.
What could be more depIorable than
ms! SiXty-six thousand divorces a
year and the rate increasing three times
as fast as the population. nv God.
what are we coming to? At this rate
now long viii il be till the entire nation
VIII be injected by this lrsadrul can
Ger! God save this republic, Dfyarcc
IS the immediate forerunne. of a ma
tions destruction
hef1ect a lncment DIn the tale these
llgureS ,ell. SiXtv-stX thousand di-
Nofces granted annually by the courts /
oI me United States; $4,000 families |
luIhed every year! Multiply this mum
peI oy nFe persons to a family. par
enls Included, and it will give You tn,
appalling figure of 10000 individuals
whose existence is ieopardiza] -
whose social relations are rgi1el Nv
this awful plague Of divorce ever
year, with numbers ia 'easiDr thee
ulnes as fast as The population.
divorce. as we have seen. i ,n,. can
Ger which is eating out the heart c.f tna
American people; $4,000 lamilics ta,i \ |,
Vlclim TO its prey annually IN tiia nrtn
OF such a moral plague how is il uossi-
gie LOT thls country to endure for any
nf
1t cannot be denied that the laws of
the land are largely responsible ro,. ms
uepiorable condition i'm our domestic
ana social relations 1t is the faciIit,-
with which divorces are obtainaloln tbat
constitutes great incentive for MANY
70 nave recourse to this eNpedieDt 70
Pun an end to their domestic fnfelicities
II the law were 50 framed thar no
ulNorce could be granted ONLY for +ha
iuuSl STleN0us reasons. such as oIlan- |
ger IRE and property. we are confident 7
mat the applications for divorce world
al once De reduced to one tenth their :
actudi number; young people would noi !
Oe so reckless in contrivine tnatriD,o,,io1 |
alliances whereupon their ,nory1 socis,1
temporal and eternal welfare must de- !
pend; they would carefully and nr,zer- l
uily study each others character 50 as {
not TO expose themselves to a life rf :
misery arising from incompatibilftv of I
temperament; they would not ALLOW
themselves TO be charmed by the song
u siren at the theatre or bewjtcbed I
oy The smiles of a cocuette in bail J
'oom. '''ii- |
ialk Of a Herod numbering the inno- q
,eIls! For 1000 children this brute NAV o
ave slaughtered, to drown his fears. :
hoderh paganism and divorce are de- y
'troyinE annually hundreds Of tbo,,- =
'ahas. Were il not for the large Num- n
'er OF immigrants which during the l.
asst hfty years have landed on our {
hores. 1t is no eXaggeration to say that n
he savage Indian would stin be roam !,
ng on the vast plains bordered by the /,
j Mississippi, the Gulf and Rocky noun
ANS yea, even to the Pacific coast"