Bishop urges voters to make marriage an General Election issue

Renewal of marriage vows

Source: Diocese of Shrewsbury

The Bishop of Shrewsbury has called upon voters to encourage politicians seeking election in the forthcoming General Election to make the promotion of marriage a central plank of the renewal of society.

Bishop Davies noted that the "single most important factor" in the flourishing of children was the stability of the relationship of their parents. He told the congregation collectively celebrating 1,970 years of married life that marriage has been diminished in recent years to one of many lifestyle choices instead of being recognised as the bedrock of society.

The harm caused by family breakdown must lead "our elected representatives to have the courage and responsibility to recognise the central place of marriage in securing the good of society and of new generations", Bishop Davies said.

He told the congregation in Chester on Saturday June 8 that the faithful would be right to expect candidates seeking their votes to take the place of marriage seriously. Bishop Davies said: "Research indicates that the single most important factor in a child's flourishing is the stable relationship of their parents and while this stability is the norm when parents are married, it is the exception when they are not.

Recent surveys also indicate most young people in 21st Century Britain still aspire to the enduring faithfulness of marriage, even as we suffer one of the highest rates of family breakdown anywhere in Europe and witness the institution of marriage in near-catastrophic decline.

Sadly, in public life and policy we have seen a parallel diminishment of the place of marriage, as if it were merely a lifestyle choice rather than the bedrock on which the well-being of the individual and society is bound up. Amid the many choices and challenges faced at a General Election, we cannot hope for families and society to flourish if marriage does not flourish. And while we cannot expect a generation of politicians to resolve so great a crisis, we should expect our elected representatives to have the courage and responsibility to recognise the central place of marriage in securing the good of society and of new generations."

The remarks by Bishop Davies in St Columba's Church came as the Marriage Foundation, a charity launched in 2012 in response to the epidemic levels of family breakdown, revealed that it has been more than a decade since any cabinet minister has made a speech that included the importance of marriage.

The charity urged political parties to "champion marriage, make it attractive for couples to marry, and turn back the tide of family breakdown".

The homily of Bishop Davies follows below in full.

Homily at the Mass for Marriage Saint Columba's, Chester Saturday 8th June 2024

Today we come together to give thanks for 1,970 years of married life faithfully lived! A life- time commitment to which you each give personal testimony. As your bishop, I join so many in your lives today who give thanks for the incalculable good your marriage has brought to family, community and society, through all the joys and sacrifices of these years you celebrate.

For the marriage commitment you entered like the young couple Tobias and Sarah described in the Scriptures praying "...In singleness of heart, be kind enough to have pity on us and bring us to old age together and together they said Amen, Amen"i This same prayer of your youth brought blessing not only to your lives but to the lives of so many others, especially your children.

Research indicates that the single most important factor in a child's flourishing is the stable relationship of their parents and while this stability is the norm when parents are married, it is the exception when they are not. Recent surveys also indicate most young people in 21st Century Britain still aspire to the enduring faithfulness of marriage, even as we suffer one of the highest rates of family breakdown anywhere in Europe and witness the institution of marriage in near-catastrophic decline. Sadly, in public life and policy we have seen a parallel diminishment of the place of marriage, as if it were merely a lifestyle choice rather than the bedrock on which the well-being of the individual and society is bound upii. Amid the many choices and challenges faced at a General Election, we cannot hope for families and society to flourish if marriage does not flourish. And while we cannot expect a generation of politicians to resolve so great a crisis, we should expect our elected representatives to have the courage and responsibility to recognise the central place of marriage in securing the good of society and of new generations.

The immense good which depends on marriage should never surprise us because we recognise that the lasting union of man and woman as the plan of the Creator of all things because the Church teaches "The vocation of marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they come from the hand of the Creator"iii. Through all the changing social and cultural conditions of centuries and millennia, in the face of everything that has threatened to diminish and devalue the dignity of marriage, the Church has unfailingly defended this lifelong, faithful commitment of love where the gift of children is welcomed.

Today, we need the same courage which the Holy Spirit gives, to propose this vision of married love and faithfulness to new generations many of whose parents were not themselves married. The Church needs to teach with unfailing clarity the plan of our Maker in marriage which was raised by Christ to be a Sacrament where, as in the first miracle at Cana in Galilee, we come to know His power and presence iv. Yet, it is your witness as Christian couples to the value of this faithful and indissoluble bond of marriage, to the grace of this Sacrament in the face of human weakness, which provides today and every day the most eloquent testimony. For this I wish to thank each one of you and entrust all married couples to the prayers of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who saw the human need of a young couple at Cana in Galilee and interceded for them with her timeless invitation "Do whatever He (my Son) tells you"v.

The Marriage Foundation (marriagefoundation.org.uk) has consistently shown in its research that marriages between men and women are inherently more stable and enduring than any other form of relationship.

One of the most recent studies by the charity has revealed that by the age of 14 years, some 46 per cent of children in the UK are not living with both natural parents. While a third of these children have experienced the collapse of their parents' marriages, almost half (46 per cent) have witnessed the separation of parents who were unmarried.

Among teens whose natural parents are still together, the majority of parents are married (84 per cent) with only a small minority unmarried (16 per cent).

The Marriage Foundation maintains that UK government family police is now focused on the provision of childcare and encouraging all parents into work instead of supporting marriage, even though the institution is proven to be the most secure for children. Aside from regulatory changes, the Government almost entirely avoids making distinctions between married and cohabiting couples in both tax and benefits systems, the charity contests, and it is nine years since any cabinet minister gave a serious speech discussing marriage.

The only remaining financial advantage in getting married is a £252 tax allowance for low- income couples introduced in 2015, according to the Marriage Foundation. This is dramatically offset, however, by a substantial "couple penalty" for low-income couples who stand to lose thousands of pounds in welfare payments if they move in together or marry. Campaigners for marriage have argued that this is a serious barrier to marriage among the poorest which has been completely neglected by politicians and that marriage is increasingly the preserve of the better off.

During the pandemic of 2020, a temporary ban on weddings followed by tight restrictions in England and Wales saw the number of marriages collapse by 61 per cent, the sharpest fall in any country in Europe.
The Government further weakened the traditional understanding of marriage when the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act redefined the institution to make it juridically equivalent to radically different types of union.

Theresa May, then Home Secretary in the Government of Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, declared that the change in the law would mean "homosexuals will be missionaries to the wider society and make it (marriage) 'stronger'".
The only robust sociological evidence presented to the House of Commons predicted the opposite, however, and warned politicians that the redefinition of marriage would undermine the institution by reinforcing the idea that marriage is irrelevant to parenthood.

A 22-page paper submitted to MPs by Dr Patricia Morgan, a distinguished sociologist and author, contained a detailed analysis of marriage trends in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Canada and some US states where same-sex marriage has been legalised, and showed how traditional marriage in such jurisdictions was in freefall.

Spain in particular saw a "precipitous" downward acceleration in the numbers of all marriages by 15,000 a year in first three years that followed the legalisation of same-sex marriage by the Socialist government in 2005, then the decline doubling to 34,000 fewer marriages per annum in the years that followed.

The Diocese of Shrewsbury covers the parts of Merseyside south of the River Mersey, the southern parts of Greater Manchester, parts of Derbyshire, almost all of Cheshire and all of Shropshire.

i Tobit 8: 9
ii Cf. Gaudium et Spes No. 47
iii Catechism of the Catholic Church No. 1603 iv Cf. CCC No. 1613
v Jn.2:5