Action Speaks Louder Than Words

Under the section Married Love in paragraph 9 the Pope states: “Married love is also faithful and exclusive of all other, and this until death. This is how husband and wife understood it on the day on which, fully aware of what they were doing, they freely vowed themselves to one another in marriage. Though this fidelity of husband and wife sometimes presents difficulties, no one has the right to assert that it is impossible; it is, on the contrary, always honorable and meritorious. The example of countless married couples proves not only that fidelity is in accord with the nature of marriage, but also that it is the source of profound and enduring happiness.”

What the Pope is addressing here, not quite directly, but still clearly is divorce. He states that marriage is supposed to last until death, and that the married couple understood this when they were wed. He says that he knows that marriage has its difficulties, but it is responsibility of the married couple to push through them and remain faithful and married.

What is interesting here isn’t really the Pope’s stance on divorce. It is pretty much a no-brainer as to what he thinks. He is very anti-divorce (although he’d probably semantically change that to pro-marriage), and doesn’t seem to have much tolerance for reasons why people would want to be divorce. Conveniently, the Pope is not allowed have any personal experience with marriage, so he can claim that people should remain in unhappy marriages without ever having to be in one himself. It makes sense that the Pope takes this stance on divorce, as when one is married theoretically it is a lifetime commitment, one that the church has a history of taking very seriously.

What is interesting is how the church acts on its anti-divorce stance. The Catholic church attacks most other things that they view as threatening to their view of an ideal family. Gays? They’re an abomination. Birth control and contraception? You’re destroying families. Abortion? Killing babies. They jump down the throats of anyone who stands up for any of these issues and will do whatever they can to get all three made illegal (although in the case of gay rights the days of sodomy laws are gone, so the church has to settle for not letting them get married). However in the case of divorce the church is just sort of like ‘well we strongly discourage it, but I mean, we can’t stop you from getting one if you really want’. Why? Something tells me that there are many Catholics who would be very unhappy if the church started a war on divorce.

Is it a tad hypocritical to attack gay rights, contraception, and abortion but leave divorce alone? Yes. However first and foremost the Catholic church is a private enterprise that needs members to continue, and they will compromise their views if they need to in order to keep those members. Is the church’s view on divorce bad? Maybe. But what is worse and more important is their lazy stance on it.

As you can probably tell, I personally am not a big fan of the Pope or of the church, and if my post is offensive to anyone, my apologies. I assure you I’m equally critical of other religions (including atheism).