Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: Bishop Blair: "Upholding the Bond of Love" (Part 2)

Toledo Bishop Leonard Blair writes in the August issue of the Catholic Chronicle:

Upholding the bond of love and life

by Bishop Leonard P. Blair

In the June issue of the Chronicle I shared with you some of the bad news about the state of marriage in our society. The following good news is meant to motivate all of us to work for the preservation of marriage as life’s most sacred and fundamental God-given institution.

Consider the following findings of social science.

Benefits for Couples
• Married people have longer life expectancies than unmarried peers. (Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good: 10 Principles, 2006, p. 20, www.princetonprinciples.org)
• Married couples report higher emotional satisfaction in their sexual relationships than cohabitating couples. (Linda Waite, Does Marriage Matter?, 1995, p. 491)
• Married people are more productive, have higher incomes, and enjoy more family time than the unmarried. This is due in part to the division and specialization of labor, where spouses each take responsibility for specific tasks. (L. Waite & E. Lehrer, The Benefits from Marriage & Religion in the U.S.: A Comparative Analysis, Population & Development Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, June 2003, p. 264)

Benefits for Women
• Married mothers are less likely to live in poverty. (Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good..., p. 20)
• For women, marriage combats depression, provides particularly high psychological benefits and significantly lowers the risk of suicide. (Wilcox, Why Marriage Matters..., p. 28 & Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good..., p. 20)
• Marriage normally decreases the likelihood that a woman will be domestically abused. Only 5 percent of married women report abuse compared to 14 percent of cohabiting women. (Waite & Lehrer, The Benefits from Marriage & Religion..., p. 261)

Benefits for Men
• Marriage encourages better relationships between parents and children, especially father-child interactions. (Brad Wilcox, Institute for American Values, Why Marriage Matters, 2nd Edition, 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences, 2003, www.american values.org)
• Married men earn 10 to 40 percent more than similar unmarried men. (Popenoe & Whitehead, National Marriage Project, The State of Our Unions 2005, p. 16)
• Married men gain substantial physical health benefits; they are physically fitter and less prone to illness or disability. (Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good..., p. 20)
• Married men have lower levels of testosterone which is associated with a reduction in aggressive and risky behavior, as well as promiscuity. (Wilcox, Why Marriage Matters..., p. 17 & Witherspoon Institute, Marriage and the Public Good..., p. 20)
• Married men are less likely to have alcohol and drug addictions, to commit crime and to be abusive. (L. Waite, Does Marriage Matter?, p. 468)

Benefits for Children
• Children raised in intact married families are more likely to attend college, are physically and emotionally healthier, are less likely to be physically or sexually abused, less likely to use drugs or alcohol and to commit delinquent behaviors, have a decreased risk of divorcing when they get married, are less likely to become pregnant/impregnate someone as a teenager and are less likely to be raised in poverty. (“Why Marriage Matters: 26 Conclusions from the Social Sciences,” Bradford Wilcox, Institute for American Values, www.americanvalues.org/html/r-wmm.html)
• Children receive gender specific support from having a mother and a father. Research shows that particular roles of mothers (e.g., to nurture) and fathers (e.g., to discipline), as well as complex biologically rooted interactions, are important for the development of boys and girls. (“Marriage and the Public Good: Ten Principles,” 2006, www.princetonprinciples.org)
• In married families, about one-third of adolescents are sexually active. However, for teenagers in stepfamilies, cohabiting households, divorced families, and those with single unwed parents, the percentage rises above one half. (“The Positive Effects...”)

Benefits for Society
• Marriage is a “seedbed” of pro-social behavior that fosters social connections, civil and religious involvement and charitable giving. Marriage connects men and women to the larger community and encourages personal responsibility, family commitment, community voluntarism and social altruism. (Barbara D. Whitehead, U.S. Senate Testimony, http://marriage.rutgers.edu)
• “Marriage is a wealth generating institution.” The commitment of husband and wife fosters economic specialization and economies of scale (two can live as cheaply as one). The link between divorce/unwed childbirth and child poverty, as well as the rising government expense for welfare programs, testify to the economic benefits of marriage. (Whitehead & Popenoe, The State of Our Unions 2006, p. 27, http://marriage.rutgers.edu/Publications/SOOU/SOOU2006.pdf)
• Marriage is the greatest social educator of children. It is the institution that most effectively teaches the civic virtues of honesty, loyalty, trust, self-sacrifice, personal responsibility and respect for others. The virtues cultivated between men and women in marriage, and between parents and the children, radiate outward into civil society. They deepen in married men and women strong habits of devotion to civic life. (Wilcox, Sacred Vows, Public Purposes: Religion, the Marriage Movement, & Marriage Policy, The Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion, p. 3, 28, 2002, http://pewforum.org/publications/reports/marriagepolicy.pdf)
• Marriage particularly benefits the weakest members of the community. An analysis of recent social statistics concluded that “the preferential option for the poor begins in the home.” (B. Wilcox, The Facts of Life & Marriage, Touchstone, Jan/Feb 2005, www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=18-01-038-f)

All these benefits for men and women in marriage are the result of a loving relationship between two people who are equal but different. This resonates with the teaching of the church on the complementarity and equality of men and women, as well as on the goods of marriage.

Beginning on the previous page of today’s Chronicle you will find reprinted the chapter on the Sacrament of Marriage from the recently published United States Catholic Catechism for Adults. This provides a more in-depth look at what the church believes and teaches, and I hope you find it helpful.

One final but important note. While gratefully acknowledging the “courage and determination” of single-parent families, the U.S. bishops have emphasized the value of parents staying together and sacrificing to raise children. There are clear advantages when children are raised by two married parents. (U.S. bishops’, “Putting Children and Families First: A Challenge for Our Church, Nation, and World,” 1991).

+THE MOST REVEREND LEONARD P. BLAIR
BISHOP OF TOLEDO