How do we treat friends who are divorcing?

[Boolie]

My husband and I have been good friends with a couple for ten years. The man has decided to leave her out of the blue. He has fairly quickly filed for divorce. She wants to make it work but he has shut her down. He says that there is no affair and that he is just unhappy. She believes him about not having an affair. My question is how do my husband and I deal with this. I pray for them both but have been supporting her and my husband feels he should be there for him. How should I handle the situation especially when I am around my friend’s husband? Plus he would not even think of doing counseling.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Your husband wants to “be there” for a man who is abandoning his wife because he claims he is “unhappy”? If your husband has no more respect for the institution of marriage than this, then perhaps it is you and he who need the marital counseling. I recommend contacting the Pastoral Solutions Institute, a Catholic counseling apostolate, for further assistance.

As for your friend and her soon to be ex-husband, if your friend is being divorced without just cause, then should it not be obvious that it is she who deserves your love and support? I would go so far as to say it would be a service to her ex if he must realize that his choice to indulge his “unhappiness” by abandoning his responsibilities will cost him the respect and friendship of people who recognize and abhor how he has chosen to treat his wife.