Catholics hail 'Ministry for Marriage' plan

Two Catholic experts on marriage have given their backing to proposals calling for the setting up of a new "Ministry for Marriage". The idea comes from a Home Office working party set up by the Government three years ago.
Dr Jack Dominian, the head of the Marriage Research Centre at the Central Middlesex Hospital in London, described the suggestion to establish a specialist unit on marriage as "an excellent idea" and said that it could help to bring together insights and policies which were currently divided between at least three different departments.
"Such a ministry would be able to take a more comprehensive look at the needs of the whole family. Resources could then be fccussed on the family as a whole, giving a clearer picture of what the vulnerable points are and enabling people to think more deeply about questions such as education about marriage," he said.
And Fr Hugh Budd, of the Catholic Marriage Advisory Council, agreed, saying: "It's nice to see a Government treating the subject so seriously." He added that it was important to exchange any positive initiative in the field.
Dr Dominian pointed out that at the moment issues relating to marriage were dealt with by the Ministry of Health, the Home Office and the Department of Education.
Thus the needs of, for example, separated and divorced women, delinquent children and those concerned with education on marriage such as counsellors were catered for separately and without sufficient co-ordination of the wide set of questions involved.
While acknowledging that legislation and administrative reform were not able to solve all people's personal problems, Dr Dominian said that changes of the kind suggested could help to promote useful research and education.
"In this way the whole climate of society. and the way it approaches marriage. can begin to change in a positive way."
However, both he and Fr Budd were more cautious about having a Minister directly responsible for marriage. The department was the more important thing, they felt.