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Mr. Justice Coleridge says, "What is certain that almost all of society's social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of family life". There is now an urgent need to promote and defend marriage and family in the United Kingdom.
The overwhelming majority of children and young people in trouble with the police come from dysfunctional families.

We are now seeing a deliberate and determined attack on the family in which marriage is being displaced and dismantled. What Hitler and Stalin failed to do, today's secular humanists are achieving. "Partners" are replacing husbands and wives. "Partnerships" are frequently without any commitment and are inevitably subject to uncertainty and instability'.
The majority (60%) of marriages are life-long, but the average length of co-habitation is about two years.

The experiment of the past 40 years has been disastrous and the casualties of wrecked families are to be seen on all sides. The sour fruit of broken families is to be seen on our streets with roaming gangs, vandalism and violence, drug abuse and drinking. They include the children who never see their natural father and the vast number of young people who have been deprived of healthy family life.
Half of the children being born in the United Kingdom today are born outside marriage. A hundred thousand children run away from home every year. Over 800,000 children never see their natural father. Nearly 1.3 million children have parents with addiction problems. The number of 11-15 year olds taking drugs in England has doubled since 1998 and over 800,000 people used cocaine in 2006. Out of a UN survey of 21 rich nations in 2007 the UK was ranked bottom for the overall well being of children and young people, including material, emotional, family and educational well being.

Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss former President of the Family Division has stated that marriage has been degraded and little done practically to support married couples. She said, "There is now no financial incentive to marry or remain married and a financial incentive to cohabit and not to marry".

There has been a national process of sexual corruption driven by an alliance of libertarianism and ruthless and often criminal commercial interests. The active promotion of promiscuity and pornography (now a major industry) has exerted a damaging influence upon marriage and family. This has led to a mammoth growth of sexually transmitted diseases, particularly amongst our children and young people. Society has been sexualised and we even have a national daily pornographic newspaper. Our culture is not marriage-friendly. Sexual relationships are often not deemed to have lasting significance. The sex act fundamentally involves responsibility, commitment and long-term love but has now been relegated to being a meaningless and trivial recreational activity.
Sexually transmitted infections total over 630,000 per year. The UK now has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe.

Current sex education totally fails to prepare children for marriage. It positively encourages sexually activity and the use of condoms. Some even regard "sexual health" initiatives as a form of child abuse. Contraceptive information is given to under-aged children without the knowledge or consent of their parents. Similarly abortions are being offered without the knowledge or consent of the parents or family doctors. Children are having children. Children are having abortions. Political correctness dictates that marriage is seen as merely one of a range of equally valid relationships.
Thousands of children are driven into the care system because of family breakdown. The majority of children in care come out of with no educational qualifications and 70% of the prostitutes in this country were in care. 75% of those leaving care have no educational qualification. We now have 1.25 million young people between 16 & 24 who are without education, employment or training -15% more than 9 years ago.

Co-habitation as a substitution for marriage does not work in terms of the well being of children whose education and health and safety is inferior to those of married couples.
Children whose parents are co-habiting are 20 times more likely to be abused than children living with their married natural parents. Children living with their mother and a co-habitee who is not the child's father are 40 times more likely to be abused. Co-habiting women are 6 times more likely than married women to attend a clinic for a sexually transmitted disease.

What can we do? - Drive the marriage-based family to the top of the political agenda. Teach marriage in schools. Radically review current sex lessons. Combat the pornography industry. Introduce tax changes that will encourage rather than penalise marriage. Above all - give every possible help and encouragement to people for them to establish mature, responsible and loving relationships.

At a "Question and Answer" meeting with clergy from the Dioceses of Belluno-Feltre & Treviso, the pope was asked by a priest: "what are the human, spiritual and pastoral approaches with which one can combine compassion and truth, to deal with the enormous increase in situations of divorced people who remarry, live together and ask priests to help them with their spiritual life? These realities need to be faced and the sufferings they cause must be shared. These people often come to us with a heartfelt plea for access to the sacraments."

Pope Benedict XVI replied: "Yes, this is indeed a painful problem and there is certainly no simple solution to resolve it. This problem makes us all suffer because we all have people close to us who are in this situation. We know it causes them sorrow and pain because they long to be in full communion with the Church. The previous bond of matrimony reduces their participation in the life of the Church. What can be done?" He continued: "I would say: as far as possible, we would naturally put prevention first. Hence, preparation for marriage becomes ever more fundamental and necessary. Canon Law presupposes that man as such, even without much education, intends to contract a marriage in harmony with human nature, as mentioned in the first chapters of Genesis. He is a human being, his nature is human and consequently he knows what marriage is. He intends to behave as human nature dictates to him. Canon Law starts from this presupposition. It is something compulsory: man is man; nature is what it is and tells him this. Today, however, this axiom, which holds that man prompted by his nature will make one faithful marriage, has been transformed into a somewhat different axiom. "Volunt contrahere matrimonium sicut ceteri homines". It is no longer nature alone that speaks, but the "ceteri homines": what everyone does. And what everyone does today is not simply to enter into natural marriage, in accordance with the Creator, in accordance with creation. What the "ceteri homines" do is to marry with the idea that one day their marriage might fail and that they will then be able to move on to another one, to a third or even a fourth marriage. This model of what "everyone does" thus becomes one that is contrary to what nature says. In this way, it becomes normal to marry, divorce and remarry, and no one thinks this is something contrary to human nature, or in any case those who do are few and far between. Therefore, to help people achieve a real marriage, not only in the sense of the Church but also of the Creator, we must revive their capacity for listening to nature. Let us return to the first query, the first question: rediscovering within what everyone does, what nature itself tells us, which is so different from what this modern custom dictates. Indeed, it invites us to marry for life, with lifelong fidelity including the suffering that comes from growing together in love. Thus, these preparatory courses for marriage must be a rectification of the voice of nature, of the Creator, within us, a rediscovery, beyond what all the "ceteri homines" do, of what our own being intimately tells us. In this situation, therefore, distinguishing between what everyone else does and what our being tells us, these preparatory courses for marriage must be a journey of rediscovery. They must help us learn anew what our being tells us. They must help couples reach the true decision of marriage in accordance with the Creator and the Redeemer. Hence, these preparatory courses are of great importance in order to "learn oneself", to learn the true intention for marriage. But preparation is not enough; the great crises come later. Consequently, ongoing guidance, at least in the first 10 years, is of the utmost importance. In the parish, therefore, it is not only necessary to provide preparatory courses but also communion in the journey that follows, guidance and mutual help. May priests, but not on their own, and families, which have already undergone such experiences and are familiar with such suffering and temptations, be available in moments of crisis. The presence of a network of families that help one another is important and different movements can make a considerable contribution. The first part of my answer provides for prevention, not only in the sense of preparation but also of guidance and for the presence of a network of families to assist in this contemporary situation where everything goes against faithfulness for life. It is necessary to help people find this faithfulness and learn it, even in the midst of suffering. However, in the case of failure, in other words, when the spouses are incapable of adhering to their original intention, there is always the question of whether it was a real decision in the sense of the sacrament. As a result, one possibility is the process for the declaration of nullity. If their marriage were authentic, which would prevent them from remarrying, the Church's permanent presence would help these people to bear the additional suffering. In the first case, we have the suffering that goes with overcoming this crisis and learning a hard-fought for and mature fidelity. In the second case, we have the suffering of being in a new bond which is not sacramental, hence, does not permit full communion in the sacraments of the Church. Here it would be necessary to teach and to learn how to live with this suffering. We return to this point, to the first question of the other diocese. In our generation, in our culture, we have to rediscover the value of suffering in general, and we have to learn that suffering can be a very positive reality which helps us to mature, to become more ourselves, and to be closer to the Lord who suffered for us and suffers with us. Even in the latter situation, therefore, the presence of the priest, families, movements, personal and communitarian communion in these situations, the helpful love of one's neighbour, a very specific love, is of the greatest importance. And I think that only this love, felt by the Church and expressed in the solidarity of many, can help these people recognize that they are loved by Christ and are members of the Church despite their difficult situation. Thus, it can help them to live the faith."

Based on Zenit ZE07081701

FEAST DAY OF ST. JULIAN AND ST. BASILISSA.
January 9th is the feast day of St. Julian and St. Basilissa, who were husband and wife. They lived in the early part of the fourth century. They took vows of continence, and for love of their faith they turned their home into a hospital. This way, they could take care of the sick, poor and indigent of the area. St. Julian took care of the men, and St. Basilissa cared for the women. The couple found Jesus in the people they served. And they did what they did because of love, not for money or any kind of reward. We know, that St. Basilissa died after suffering great persecutions for the faith, in A.D.302. Julian lived much longer. He continued his generous service to sick people even after Basilissa had died. Later, Julian, too, died a martyr. Basilissa and Julian spent their whole lives helping others and serving God. They planted the seed of faith by living in a holy way. They watered that faith and made it grow with their blood shed for Jesus crucified. Let them be in some way an example for all married couples.

BISHOP TARTAGLIA ON MARRIAGE
Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley in this homily to members of the legal profession during the annual Red Mass on Oct. 8 in St. Mary's Cathedral, attacked the raft of legislative measures in Scotland and elsewhere which have recklessly jeopardized family life as intended by God's purpose for human beings created in his image and likeness. The family constituted by parents, a man and woman married to each other, and their offspring, he said has, until now, been the basic cell of society in pre-Christian, Christian and non-Christian cultures for millennia.

The bishop outlined some of these: The Family Law Act which makes divorce even quicker and gives quasi-marital status to de facto heterosexual unions. Civil Partnership legislation allows homosexual couples to register their relationships and enjoy a civil status analogous to marriage. The Gender Recognition Act allows people to choose to be male or female irrespective of their sex. The Catholic Church's view of these kinds of developments here and elsewhere is well known. Our reaction to civil partnership legislation is typical of our stance. The social teaching of the Church could not be clearer: he quoted: 'By putting homosexual unions on a legal plane analogous to that of marriage and family life, the State acts arbitrarily and in contradiction with its duties'.

Continuing, the bishop said, that the legistrators should know better what is good for society, and in some cases they do know better but ignore it in the interests of power. For instance, all reputable research shows that children do better with two parents who are husband and wife. But political correctness, very often the enemy of right thinking and freedom of speech, practically forbids this to be said because it will offend some group's sensitivities.

Bishop Philip's main objection to these laws, he said, was that the truth of marriage and of the family is not just a mystery of faith, but belongs to the natural law and is accessible by reason. Even many non-Christian societies have recognized this. Unfortunately, in our times, the minds of many have been so darkened by hubris and by the selfish pursuit of their own gratification that they have lost sight of the natural law which God has written into his creation so that even those who do not believe in him may reach out for the truth. It is the vision of marriage, which still basically unites Christians, Jews, Muslims, and adherents of other respected religions. It is the vision of marriage too, which basically inspires any man and woman who marry with true love in their hearts. They want lasting, enduring, faithful love. This vision of marriage is the hope of right reason as well the gift of faith.

POPE BENEDICT XVI ON MARRIAGE.
The Pope in his Sunday Angelus address (October 9th) based his words on the Gospel of the day, which recounts Jesus' teaching on marriage. He pointed out that in response to the question as to whether it was lawful for a husband to repudiate his wife, an established precept of the Mosaic law, Jesus responded that it was a concession of Moses because of their 'hardness of heart', while the real truth about marriage goes back 'to the beginning of creation', when, God 'made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one', as is written in the book of Genesis. Jesus added: 'So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder'.

The Pope added, this was God's original plan, as the Second Vatican Council said in Gaudium et Spes: 'The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by his laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant...for God himself is the author of matrimony'. The Pope's thoughts were directed to all Christian spouses, he said that with them he thanked the Lord for the gift of the sacrament of marriage, and exhorted them to remain faithful to their vocation in each stage of life, 'in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness', as they promised in the sacramental rite.

He continued by wishing that Christian spouses, aware of the grace received, would build a family open to life and capable of facing together the numerous and complicated challenges of our time. 'Their testimony', he said, 'is particularly necessary today'. Adding that 'we need families that do not let themselves be drawn by modern cultural currents inspired by hedonism and relativism, and that are willing to realize their mission in the Church and in society with generous dedication'.

In Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II wrote that the sacrament of marriage makes Christian married couples and parents witnesses of Christ 'to the end of the earth', as authentic 'missionaries' of love and life. This mission, the Pope commented, is oriented both to the internal life of the family, especially in mutual service and in the education of children, as well as to the external: the domestic community. In fact, it is called to be the sign of God's love to all. He finished by saying that the family can only fulfil this mission if it is supported by divine grace. For this reason, it is necessary to pray tirelessly and to persevere in the daily effort to keep the commitments assumed on the wedding day.