Shropshire Star comment: Bishop has to fight tide with issue
According to the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury, the Rt Rev Mark Davies, Brexit is a sideshow for the Government when compared to the importance of supporting marriage.
The institution, he will argue in a homily at the weekend, is in crisis and should be top of our concerns.
And while people are rightly worried about the environment, future generations will be surprised that we failed to defend marriage.
His subtext is that the State has not only taken its eye off the ball when it comes to marriage, but has actively taken measures to sabotage it, through facilitating divorce and proposing a shake up which will further undermine the marriage institution, including the extension of civil partnerships to heterosexual couples.
You do not need to know the statistics to know the present state of marriage. You just have to observe relatives, friends, and colleagues, and your own experience. How many of those you know are living in a family environment which the Bishop and the Church would consider the ideal - that is, a first and only marriage in accordance with the Christian tradition?
The picture will probably be mixed, as in the 21st century family life and relationships are diverse and complicated, and people are less inclined to follow the Christian template than they once were.
So there are divorces, second and third marriages, and no marriages at all - "living in sin," as it used to be called. There are children, stepchildren, half brothers and half sisters.
It is presumably an element of what David Cameron was driving at when he spoke of there being a "broken society," a campaign with overtones of morality which faded away.
The paradox is that despite the Bishop's talk of marriage being in crisis, it is also very popular as an ideal, and he quotes research showing that over 75 per cent of teenagers aspire to be married.
We know where the Bishop is coming from on the issue - he is coming from a religious standpoint which upholds the sanctity of marriage. But you could argue that if marriage is in crisis, it is because the Church is not getting its teachings across to the masses any more.
Modern changes have liberalised the ways people can legally love and live. The ideal of marriage is to provide a stable and loving environment in which to bring up children. In fulfilling that ideal, in the 21st century marriage has become an optional extra rather than an essential requirement for many.
While the Bishop's homily is thought-provoking, for the moment at least, the tide seems against him.
