CATHOLIC HERALD

Editor • Cristina Odour Deputy Editor • Piers McGrandle Literary Editor • Darni.n Thompson Advertisement Director 'James Hughes • Circulation Manager • Christina White News Desk • Cecilia Bromley-Martin • Joe Jenkins
Divorced of sense
THIS WEEK, DIVORCE is the subject of furious debate in two very different societies. In this country, Lord Mackay, the Lord Chancellor, has come up with proposals for reforms to the existing divorce law; while in Ireland, the electorate is preparing to vote for a referendum on whether to legalise divorce.
Is divorce an inalienable right, or a legislative measure whose consequences have already been proved to be harmful to individuals and to society as a whole? The statistics show that children of divorced parents perform less well academically; they're more likely to be truants: and more likely, later, to turn to crime. Even their health seems to suffer adversely. The statistics also show that one in two marriages in Britain today end in divorce and that this figure rose sharply following the 1969 Divorce Reform Act, which eased and accelerated the process of divorce. Moreover, today this typical divorce takes only six months to conclude.
Lord Mackay proposes three changes to the existing divorce law. He wants to end the "quickie" six months divorce, and he also wishes to enforce a period of mediation "when necessary, subsidised by the government" between quarrelling spouses. For these proposals he is to be heartily congratulated. But, paradoxically, Lord Mackay's proposals would also enable all couples to have recourse to divorce within one year regardless. This latter decision confirms all suspicion that this government pays lip service to the family unit as the core of our society, but in truth believes heart and soul in the needs of the individ
ual for instant gratification. In erasing the means whereby men and women may dissolve the marriage bond, this government espouses the secular view: marriage as a short term contract, rather than the religious idea of marriage as covenant. Once legislation joins much of the media and many of the trend-setters in underpinning the secular view, how can the Churches, anxious relatives or friends hope to counter the overwhelming assumption that marriage is not for keeps? For Catholics, the issue has long been a painful one. Although annulments entitle former spouses to marry in the Church and to receive Holy Communion, divorced Catholics who remarry are, in the eyes of the Church, committing adultery. Any who have sought to divorce abusive spouses or flee alcoholic ones for the welfare of their own person or that of their children, have petitioned for some change to this status. The Church is in an unenviable position: in being compassionate to those divorced Catholics, it risks giving tacit support to a measure that tears asunder that which the Lord had earlier joined forever.
This argument must also carry weight in Ireland, where the Church continues to campaign against divorce. Though many clamour that divorce is a modern right that must not be denied the people of Ireland "whether Catholic or not" the Church reminds the electorate that its duty to the generations of tomorrow calls into question the wisdom of enacting a legislation that has already shown itself to threaten the happiness and fulfilment of so many.