Editorial

A prayer for marriages and families in an America that increasingly devalues both

The sacrament of marriage and raising a family have become complicated in today’s society. So says a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center.

But should they be?

As Catholics, our faith teaches us much about marriage and family life. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament” (#1602).

It also reads, “God himself is the author of marriage. The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. … The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life” (#1603).

Despite what our faith instructs us, a recent survey—which included respondents who identified as Catholic—conducted by Pew noted America’s public views of the family are “complicated” and becoming “more pessimistic than optimistic about the institution of marriage and the family.”

Why?

According to an article recently posted by OSV News, social and legal changes in recent decades have increased the variety of households in the United States, survey data shows. A growing share of adults in the U.S. in recent decades have either delayed or foregone marriage, according to Pew’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data.

The U.S. Supreme Court has also in recent years expanded the legal definition of marriage to include couples of the same sex. It did this in its ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015.

In the survey about people’s perceptions about the future of marriage and family in our country, 40% of Americans said they are very or somewhat pessimistic about the institution of marriage and the family. Just 25% are very or somewhat optimistic; another 29% said they are neither optimistic nor pessimistic.

Other survey findings include:

—While the American public generally supports a variety of family arrangements, they more favorably view some types of families over others. The vast majority—about 90%—said an opposite-sex couple raising children, whether married or not, is a completely acceptable arrangement, while smaller majorities said the same about single parents at 60% and about same-sex couples at 47%.

—About 23% of Americans called being married as either extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life, while just 26% said the same of having children.

—Among religious groups, just 22% of Catholics identified marriage as either extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life; 31% said the same about having children.

“We know that families are changing and there is no typical American family these days,” Kim Parker, Pew’s director of social and demographic trends research, said in a statement.

The statistics seem to indicate those surveyed embrace a more secularistic attitude when it comes to what they value as important. The survey found that when asked to rank what factors were extremely or very important for a fulfilling life, most Americans pointed to career satisfaction (71%) and having close friends (61%). Most Catholics surveyed ranked having a job or career they enjoy (77%) and having close friends (59%) as extremely or very important to living a fulfilling life as well.

Are your career and friends more important than your spouse and children? We hope and pray that’s not the case.

During the annual archdiocesan Wedding Anniversary Mass on Aug. 27, Archbishop Charles C. Thompson told those in attendance that marriage “and every vocation involves the universal call to holiness and mission.”

Married couples, he continued, must be witnesses of faith. “Through word, sacrament and service, especially in the grace of the holy Eucharist, your marriage has a solid foundation to make a difference not only for your children, your grandchildren, your neighbors and friends, but for all you encounter.”

Let’s pray for happy and holy marriages, unions that allow God to be a third partner. Let’s pray spouses are open to having a family—whether it be through procreation or adoption. And let’s keep prayer at the heart of each family, remembering it is not a solution, but must be the foundation.

—Mike Krokos