Exclusive analysis: National Catholic marriage rate plummets

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irishpatrick

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*The number of marriages being celebrated in the Church has dropped nearly 60 percent since 1972

It is June — that time of year when many of us will be receiving wedding invitations. One thing that may have changed from years past is the likelihood that the address on that invitation is for a country club, beach or community center rather than a Catholic parish. *
osv.com/tabid/7621/itemid/8053/Exclusive-analysis-National-Catholic-marriage-rat.aspx​

This news appears to me to go hand-in-hand with the recent census news of less babies being born to whites. This verifies that the largest group in the USA are becoming less religious with each passing year.
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Clearly, we need to redefine marriage to reflect modern times.

People should be able to marry animals and their laptops. 😉
 
Indeed, Americans, Catholic and non-, are cohabiting rather than marrying; moreover, outside the ultra-high SES spheres, women are avoiding or at least postponing a trip down the isle at least as much as men are. These days there really isn’t that much of an economic benefit for a woman to marry unless the man brings a substantial amount to the marriage. In other words, it’s all about the money.

The reason I see for this is fairly simple — old marriage was based on a division of labor between a husband and a wife. That division of labor pretty much no longer applies outside of the wealthy because most couples cannot afford that division of labor. So that model of marriage almost done in the wider population. The new benchmark is independence, and a social model is being created to support that. In the US, among all strata of the middle class, the new model that has been emerging is the consumer marriage, the glue of which is the purchasing power of two incomes that can create a lifestyle that each spouse could not achieve alone. These are couples who are not rich; they are people who depend both incomes to support their lifestyles. They tend to not divorce much because it would cost both parties that lifestyle they’ve built.

The biggest non-religious/spiritual problem with the “consumption marriage” is that it only works for couples where both partners earn a decent salary. In lower SES rungs it doesn’t work at all because there simply enough income coming in. And in these two scenarios is where on sees higher divorce rates: in middle-class consumer marriages where one person stops working or experiences a dramatic decrease in income, and in monetarily poorer marriages where the couple has tried, and failed, to live the lives of the rich and famous.

For about 50 years there has been no viable social model - one that is based on day-in-and-day-out practicality rather than on emotional and religious fulfillment - that supports marriage for most demographics.
 
Yeah. So let’s all forget about God’s plan or happiness or love or raising children in a stable environment because ‘it’s all about money’ and there’s ‘no viable model.’
 
This is due to very poor catechesis over the past 30 to 40 years - and even today.
Poor catechesis has allowed relativism and secularism to flourish.
What have all of our US Bishops been doing ?

Why isn’t every US Bishop actively and openly promoting the reading the of “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” by all Catholics over age 15 - throughout each of their own Diocese ?

Each Bishop should instruct his Diocese Priests to preach about:
Mortal Sin;
and the Catholic required responsbility to VOTE;

Along with the serious sinfulness of:
abortion,
euthanasia,
fetal stem cell research,
cloning,
gay marriage,
and artificial contraception.
These are the key issues in the US that violate the basic human right to life, and freedom of religion.

The Bishops themselves have to be concerned about their own consistency, and the MORTAL sin of SCANDAL - when they allow Catholic politicians who violate the above
to receive Holy Communion.
If they took care of this, Catholic politicians, and Catholics and non-Catholics alike would know that the Bishops take the teachings of the Church seriously.

In addition, there would not be such a bum’s rush and need to educate everyone about Faith and Morals prior to a vote of Congress or the State Legislature.
 
karow said:
Indeed, Americans, Catholic and non-, are cohabiting rather than marrying; moreover, outside the ultra-high SES spheres, women are avoiding or at least postponing a trip down the isle at least as much as men are. These days there really isn’t that much of an economic benefit for a woman to marry unless the man brings a substantial amount to the marriage. In other words, it’s all about the money.

The reason I see for this is fairly simple — old marriage was based on a division of labor between a husband and a wife. That division of labor pretty much no longer applies outside of the wealthy because most couples cannot afford that division of labor. So that model of marriage almost done in the wider population. The new benchmark is independence, and a social model is being created to support that. In the US, among all strata of the middle class, the new model that has been emerging is the consumer marriage, the glue of which is the purchasing power of two incomes that can create a lifestyle that each spouse could not achieve alone. These are couples who are not rich; they are people who depend both incomes to support their lifestyles. They tend to not divorce much because it would cost both parties that lifestyle they’ve built.

The biggest non-religious/spiritual problem with the “consumption marriage” is that it only works for couples where both partners earn a decent salary. In lower SES rungs it doesn’t work at all because there simply enough income coming in. And in these two scenarios is where on sees higher divorce rates: in middle-class consumer marriages where one person stops working or experiences a dramatic decrease in income, and in monetarily poorer marriages where the couple has tried, and failed, to live the lives of the rich and famous.

For about 50 years there has been no viable social model - one that is based on day-in-and-day-out practicality rather than on emotional and religious fulfillment - that supports marriage for most demographics.
Click to expand...
The other problem is this leads to far less children, which in-turn means the death of the culture, or at the very least a radical change.

Men in the past married because they were expected to marry. They were expected to raise a family and if they did not people looked poorly upon them. Those traditions and lessons no longer exist and it is a very bad development.
 
ANNE_2 said:
This is due to very poor catechesis over the past 30 to 40 years - and even today.
Poor catechesis has allowed relativism and secularism to flourish.
What have all of our US Bishops been doing ?

Why isn’t every US Bishop actively and openly promoting the reading the of “Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition” by all Catholics over age 15 - throughout each of their own Diocese ?

Each Bishop should instruct his Diocese Priests to preach about:
Mortal Sin;
and the Catholic required responsbility to VOTE;

Along with the serious sinfulness of:
abortion,
euthanasia,
fetal stem cell research,
cloning,
gay marriage,
and artificial contraception.
These are the key issues in the US that violate the basic human right to life, and freedom of religion.

The Bishops themselves have to be concerned about their own consistency, and the MORTAL sin of SCANDAL - when they allow Catholic politicians who violate the above
to receive Holy Communion.
If they took care of this, Catholic politicians, and Catholics and non-Catholics alike would know that the Bishops take the teachings of the Church seriously.

In addition, there would not be such a bum’s rush and need to educate everyone about Faith and Morals prior to a vote of Congress or the State Legislature.
Click to expand...
How about also teaching the obvious truth that life is not supposed to be all about “self,” and they owe a debt to others and to society at large.
 
Irishpatrick

I noticed your footnote, and disagree.
Just don’t VOTE for those who support abortion - Democrat or Republican.
If most of us paid attention to whom we vote for, politicans will get the message, and supporters of abortion will lose in 95% of the cases.
Due to the voting of Christian Americans we are partly to blame.

Further depriving innocents of life is secondary to the social issues. There is no social justice for those who have been murdered.

“Worthiness to Receive Communion” by Cardinal Ratzinger
priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
 
Not everyone is the same. I am unmarried and enjoying the single life — not co-habitating, not living a life of sin — just simply single and happy to be. That’s not to say that someone special might come along to change my mind (and probably after menopause) but for now, I’m glad to be single, and glad to not be forced to marry simply because I can’t do anything else with my life.

I am able to make it on my own…There are many reasons one may marry, but IMOHO, it’s better to get married if one is able to make it on their own, than by feeling pressured to marry because one can’t make it on their own.
 
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