Marriage: permanent, temporary, sacred?

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor has given a long interview to BBC television saying that the breakdown of marriage is'one of the greatest evils of our day'.  Meanwhile, an interesting New Statesman article anatomizes how Iran is catching up with western sexual mores by reviving the idea of 'muta' marriage:  a binding contract, but a temporary one...

Comments

[Rick Beekman]

Libby;

This is more Foolishness of Secular thinking.

If someone really loves someone and are willing to share with another then by all means marry them if they also feel the same.

If a person is not certain they want to commit and share their life with another then don't marry.

Is it Lust..Or is it Love.?

As a Christian God has to be the centerpoint in a relationship. If a relationship is all about "Me" "Myself" and "I"..it won't last.

[Stuart Hartill]

Talk about 'breakdown' of marriage as a problem is misleading. The problem is rather poor or ill advised marriage and abuse of power, which in extreme circumstances leads to the kind of horrific incident noted in the honour killing item below this one.
By comparison, if two people meet, make a go of it but it just won't work - or one mistreats the other - then it is only civilised that they should be able to part, preferably before they have kids and cause more hurt to more people.
Even as a non-believer I actually favour the kind of old fashioned priest who persistently asks a couple 'are you sure' and won't rush into marrying them (only wish they'd extend the same care to gay couples)but the church is not so good at helping people part when, in time, they change and are no longer suited to be together.
The cardinal's simplistic emphasis on 'breakdown' and branding that as 'wrong' is not helpful. Faith leaders should centre on the humans in relationships, not trying to mould them to an abstract model which, frankly, doesn't fit anything in the real world.

[Jess H]

I have to say on the one hand, people these days get married and unmarried in a way that is unhealthy, but on the other you have to remember that back when people stayed married forever, times were different. Abused wives had nowhere to go and couldn't face the shame of divorce, those who fell out of love just took up lovers but did not divorce. In some ways the new approach to marriage is more liberated, but people are starting to take it less and less seriously. And Rick what are you talking about "Foolishness of Secular thinking"? do you not think that people with faith get divorced, make mistakes etc? My parents have been married for 20 years and God being the centrepoint didn't even come into it.

[Carl Waring]

This and the Catholic stance on same-sex marriages remind me of a Roy Zimmerman song, The Defenders of Marriage (see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bja2ttzGOFM&feature=user ), part of which goes:

"Every time we think about same-sex marriage
Makes us sick to our guts
I mean, two people who want to commit to a stable monogamous life-long relationship
What are they, nuts?
It's unnatural!
Now a man should not lie with a person who is a guy
He should only lie to his wife, the bible is clear
We're —
Defenders of marriage
In three-button suits
We'll raise our double standard and see who salutes
Defenders of marriage
Defending the institution against people who want to get married"
© 1998 Watunes (BMI)