The Catholic bulletin., 1916-01-29
the honor Of the Church and the glory

the honor of the Church and the glory
of God.
Furthermore, in marriage husband
and wife are bound together, not by
simple force of their own Wills only,
but by mysterious power from which
they can never free themselves, the
power which unites them being a
divine power. And so the union has
always had a religious Ii. e. binding)
and sacred Ii. e. inviolableJ character
which distinguishes it from every
other human convention and makes it
a divine institution. The authority of
the State is powerless before it.
Again the Church does not hold that
marriage is a purely natural function.
In the New Law it was exalted by
Christ and He established its sacro-
sanctity under it's religious guarantee
"a sacrosanctity the like of which
cannot be known to any mere princi-
pie of political or State conventions.
Man, the Church holds, was made
for marriage, since it creates for the
couple an altruistic relation in regard
to the family and society. This rela-
ton is founded on love, and purely
individual self-interest and pleasure
are incompatible with it.
But is the individual to be sacrificed
and deprived of happiness, because
through no fault of his own, the
marriage for him has proved fail
ure? Better that an individual suffer
loss than that the collective body be
destroyed. Better, thousand times,
the continuance of isolated cases of
unhappy families than that counte-
nance should be lent to a principle
which would destroy the happiness of
the race and drain the very sources of
the joys of marriage and the sweet
ness of home. Besides, says the Jesuit,
there is alleyiation in case of dire
necessity by means of separation
which, though deplored by the Church,
is tolerated as lesser evil than di-
vorce, since it admits of reconcilia-
ton which not infrequently follows.
The teaching of divorce is doctrine
of despair.
1t is also held by many materialists
that the one-wife principle is bar to
national welfare and human progress
This, says the Jesuit, must be put
down as quite as baseless as the rest
| Marriage is the first foundation of the
family, and the family is the basis oi
society When the domestic relation
is weak and lax, civilization is en-
feebled and precarious; but when il
is strong, great nations repose upon
it's strength. The Christian teaching
on the subject of marriage and the
| family is a powerful prop of material
civilization and of national and hui
man progress.
The charge which the Catholic
Church brings against the materialists
| is that the doctrine of divorce, as well
as the claims for its facilities which
they advance, form anAoutrage against
nature, crime against society, a sin
against God Divorce, says the Jesuit
is absolutely an outrage against ma
ture, since nature ordains, that life
committal for man and woman is OF
the essence of the contract. Termin
able unions and leasehold marriages
consequently destroy the nature OF
marriage. Further, the love of one
person only, while life shall last, is the
condition and ideal of human wedlocR
which is outraged by divorce, and fol
the reason that divorce implies that
1 L, No Oh N
suits human wedlock by debasing it
Apart from these considerations, di
vorce is a crime against society, since
It starts it's devastations in the sacred
social unit of the family and thence
4 scatters its destruction over the en-
tire fabric of social organization. Who
can think of the cruelty done to little
children by vile institution which
tears husband from wife and rObs in
Enocent children of the strong love o
their own father and mother!
And then comes the injustice tt
grown-up sons and daughters, will
the shame attaching to familie!
through the ignominy of divorce. TX
advocate divorce is to advocate thu
degradation of woman to the state il
which she was in the pre-Christial
era, and when, during the ages o
Rome's highest culture, the divorce
court was always busy breaking III
the homes. Woman, more so than man
/ is ever the most tragic victim of thu
principle, for she clings, as mai
rarely does. to the love of children
Generally, too, she depends on he
husband for support and re-marriag
for her is far more difficult than 70
him. Finally, it is sin against re
ligion and against God, since divorc
invariably brings atheism and sacri
lege in its wake, and this being s.
(says the Jesuit) it remains scanda
to Christianity that Protestan
churches are today compromising o.
this question of divorce and treason
ably playing in to the hands of th
enemies of Christ and humanity.