Saint Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - February 8^th 2004

Given the fact that we celebrate Valentine’s Day together with World Marriage Day next week, I thought the editorial—State of Marriage is Going South; Let’s Fight on the ’Union’ Side, by Gerald Korson in this week’s Our Sunday Visitor might cause us to do some serious reflection and thinking.

How is the state of the union? While we’re at it, how is the state of our unions?
Answering the latter question may go a long way toward answering the former.
We often hear talk about how marriage and the family are the pillars of our society, but we rarely pause to consider what precisely that means in real terms.
Annually, the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University publishes a “State of Our Unions” report that uses polling and census data to track trends in marriage and families in the United States. The 2003 report, which examines data from 1960 to the present and specifically studies the state of marriage as a child-rearing institution, offers some disturbing key findings:
Marriages are down.
Americans have become less likely to marry. Between 1970 and 2001, the annual number of marriages per 1,000 unmarried adults dropped by more than one-third. Why? Primarily because there’s been a rapid increase in cohabitation—the nice word for “living in sin” and an unmarried sexual relationship.
Divorces are up.
The U.S. divorce rate has more than doubled since 1960—although it has leveled off a bit since its all time high in the 1980’s.
Children are down.
Americans are having fewer children, and most do not view having children as a priority of marriage. This lack of child-centeredness contributes to the divorce rate, since fewer couples opt to “work things out” for the sake of the children.
Families are more fragile.
The percentage of children being raised in single-parent families has grown tremendously since 1960. The causes are clear enough: divorce, out-of-wedlock births and cohabitation.
Teens are more accepting of marriage “alternatives.”
This may be the worst news of all. Jaded by the prevalence of divorce and the growing acceptance of cohabitation and out-of-wedlock births, young people are more cynical than ever about marriage. Many still dream of a lasting marriage, but there is growing pessimism as to whether that ideal is even possible.
The “State of Our Unions” study goes on to analyze the social effect of this marital and familial breakdown. One of the key repercussions is what it calls “a poverty of connectedness,” whereby the insecurity caused by marital disruption and fatherless households has wreaked havoc with the emotional well-being of children—causing increased depression, eating disorders and other psychological problems. “Children reared in non-intact families have more than twice the risk of social and behavioral problems as children reared in non-intact families,” the study says.
Experts now agree that marriage benefits children. “One of the best things that the society can do for children is to create the conditions for healthy marriages,” asserts the study’s conclusion.
That’s something with which we should all concur. Let’s pray that the efforts of the Church and other organizations, may help strengthen marriages and families everywhere—for the sake of our children and for the state of our union.

FATHER KLEPPNER ARCHIVES

115 Trinity Drive
Aliquippa, PA 15001 (724) 775-6363 Phone
(724) 775-3848 Fax

Father Kleppner - February 8th 2004

FATHER KLEPPNER ARCHIVES

St. Frances Cabrini Parish

Father Kleppner - February 8^th 2004