For Better and Worse

Some good news about marriage! Data shows that marriages are up and divorces are down in the US. The pandemic years upended a few things, causing couples to postpone their weddings and sadly, more than a few marriages fell apart. But it’s not just a return to pre-pandemic rates – marriage therapists have seen a change, according to an article at CNN. These tough years “made [couples] get intentional about how they approached important things like finances, compromise and autonomy. Many people walked out of that experience with a better sense of what they need in a life partner.” The same may be reflected in lower divorce rates. As people realize what is important in life, crystallized by difficult times, it may be that couples are not throwing away their relationships so easily.

Meanwhile, a new poll shows that support for homosexual marriage has dipped slightly amongst Americans, including among religious groups. This may be reflected across the pond also, albeit in a downstream kind of way. Irish voters overwhelmingly rejected adding gender-neutral language to its constitution. Currently, Ireland’s constitution refers to marriage as “the necessary basis of social order” and speaks of the government’s role in ensuring that “mothers shall not be obliged by economic necessity” to work outside her home to the “neglect of their duties in the home.” Although Ireland was the first country to recognize gay marriage, it may be waking up to where genderless marriage leads and how it harms the most vulnerable – women and children. Leo Varadkar, who has the title of Ireland’s “first openly gay” Taoiseach (Prime Minister), stepped down unexpectedly soon after the vote, citing “personal and political” reasons.

Studies consistently show that marriage is a source of great happiness, a “more reliable pathway to a meaningful and happy life than even a good job.” So God be praised for this little uptick in marriage which can only be good for our country. If you are able to do so, seek to strengthen the marriages around you and pray for your spouse also. A prayer:

Lord God, who didst create man and wife and didst destine them for matrimony, and, moreover, bless them with the fruit of the body, and didst signify therein the mystery (of the spiritual union) of Thy Son Jesus Christ and the Church, His bride: we beseech Thy infinite goodness, that Thou wouldst not permit Thy creation, ordinance, and blessing to be disturbed or corrupted, but wouldst graciously preserve them with us, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.