The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-10-15
ties which should bind highest. Sta,

= tistics show large decrease in your
asehurch memberships, except in Cath.
ssolie church membership. Lack OF
- church membership it is, l think,
(which leads to your extraordinary
records of juvenile crime, of which l
SS9sshall say, possibly, a few words, be-
fore you leave.
But divorce is by far the greatest
: evil which you have to combat, and
:,xiti seems to be the only one OF all
q yUir evils which you are not making
: the least effort to combat, but are
as.alcoddling and encouraging, fostering
and increasing. You cannot prosper
spiritually or socially while this is 60
y ing on, You must get rid of divorce
iutterly and achieve a proper idea or
sf11arriage before you can say safely
~'that you have succeeded as Nation.
:. Real Matrimony Unknown.
-. 1T would appear to me that there
...are plenty of people in America who
lido not know at all what matrimony
t-means, or should mean, who either
i never knew or have forgotten that its
chief characteristic as an institution
is and must be, if society is rightly to
be maintained, exclusiveness. The
law OF God and the best interest OF
~4nan demand this. These two things
). never clash-the law of God and the
best interests of man. One is invarl-
ably the other.
II 2"The Catholic church condemns dl-
-''yorce because divorce is against the
law of Christ. The church and l, and
all good Christians, as churchmen,
must and do condemn it, first, for that
cause, for its antagonism to the teach
~ings of all good religion. But, look
of view, one cannot find the slightest
reason for anything except condemna-
ton. 1t was born-the mere idea of
g. divorce was born-of selfishness and
lust, and without consideration for
any really worthy thing. A divorce
law is lawless law Divorce is an
anarchical idea. 1t must be ruinous
TO the welfare of the family, and the
family is the foundation of society.
- ""See what occurs! This man is
divorced; that woman is divorced;
they both remarry, and again they
seek divorce and get it. The welfare
,aof society demands one woman and
rone man to every family; but with I'M
limited divorce, such as is practiced
in America, there comes before long
not one family for every pair, but an
aggregation of families. The family
no longer is a unit.
T. Disastrous! And where divorce
docs not actually occur-where the
sexisting laws are not definitely ap-
pealed to, there is. in the minds of
both parties to the marriage contract
here. in America, the knowledge that
those laws may at some future time be
appealed to, and this mere knowledge
tutterly destroys the sense of true re.
sponsibility in the minds of both hus-
band and wife. The family without 1t
no longer is unit. All family life,
all family ties, are irrevocably de-
ssstroyed. Divorce which on demand
can break the bonds which should be
most permanently binding, by doing
SO corrupts the wife, is almost GER
tain to debauch the husband, and
leaves the children robbed of both
their natural protectors.
sr&Leads Children Into Loose Lives.
- This cannot but encourage the
children to lead loose lives in their
turn, and so the evil spreads and
spreads until at length it reaches ev-
.erywhere and cankers everywhere.
Morality, having vanished in the par
rents, must inevitably vanish in the
children, unless by the grace of God
they are miraculously preserved in
purity, which sometimes happens, GER
tainly. And by destroying the moral
ity of the child you destroy the safe.
,ty. of society.
'''S'"Divorce, therefore, is not only con-
itrary to religious laws and spiritual
laws, but is against the best practical
interests of the country. The two
are interlinked so closely that one
cannot be disturbed without disturb
lance to the other; but that fact is in
these days frequently forgotten. Di-
svorce is undeniably an economical
mistake as we'll as most heinous sin
against religion. 1t is an evil which
eventually, if left uncurbed, must ut
aterly disrupt your social fabric"
,T.ssThen you think us in bad way,
socially and economically? You think
that social anarchy confronts us?"
i. sli&
y 10 The cardinal, who had been speak
Sg with closed eyes his fine old head