2 Yrs Marriage Contracts: U.S?

Well, its not here yet but its knocking at the back door...in Mexico.

The proposal in Mexico by Mexico City Assemblyman Lionel Luna of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (no surprise) is to have a 2 yr 'practice run' of marriage at which time if its not working out (according to how you feel when you wake up that morning), the deal is off, as if it never happened.

Now every married couple knows that the first 5 years of marriage are the probably the hardest. Naturally, the longer the marriage some of those bumps and pot holes in life can be very stressful in a marriage (illness, finances, children), in the first 5 years of marriage, the couple is just getting use to the word commitment. The fact that it's not all about 'ME' and that its a 'give and take' and compromising to make things work.

As time goes by that compromising and commitment get stronger, but the first 5 years the couple is learning about life together. In two years the shine of the honeymoon is just wearing thin. Now anyone that tells you that the honeymoon has never worn thin and their marriage is complete bliss 24/7 just isn't truthful. As time goes on the couple learns to weather the hard time together and the couple looks back on those times as 'refiner fire' moments, making their marriage stronger

To end the marriage as proposed by Mexico's proposed bill is just ridiculous and is a family killer and a society killer as well. It use to be that Hispanics were known for their close family ties, 'the familia comes first' mentality. Now it looks like legislators in Mexico are trying to kill that in the name of more freedom. I'm not sure of all the reasons why they'd be doing this. Perhaps to squish any benefits for families that the government has to provide. As if they're doing all they can now? Immigration tells the story

Why do I bring up this article, because I don't see it out of the question for the government here to adopt such outrageous legislature. With the debt figures climbing, the goal of the government to rake in more taxes, it would only seem fare to presume it would be only a matter of time before they start looking at maybe eliminating deductions for children, make it more beneficial to file taxes as single, in the end to help facilitate that with a proposal such as Mexico.

This administrations recently rescinded support for traditional marriage and some radical States (such as the one I live in - California) keep adding to their ant-family laws, well it may be only a matter of time.

I pray that I'm dead wrong and this is only my opinion, but we need to be aware of legislation that's anti-family, anti-life.

If we already except the killing of an innocent unborn baby for sake of convenience, the family and marriage is clearly in the cross hairs.

Here, a website on some interesting statistical facts about Hispanics; divorce rates, education, income...

Also a couple of great articles on Marriage:
Abp. Dolan to President Obama: Cease Attacks on Marriage or Risk “National Conflict…of Enormous Proportions”   

Marriage Matters


An here's the article on Mexico's proposed bill:

Till two years do us part: Mexico City considers temporary marriages    
“The proposal is when the two-year period is up, if the relationship is not stable or harmonious the contract simply ends,” Reuters quoted bill co-author and Mexico City Assemblyman Leonel Luna. “You wouldn’t have to go through the torturous process of divorce,” continued Luna, a member of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution.  MORE   

Coulter vs Ex-Father Albert

Late last week Ann Coulter was a guest on Ex-Catholic Priest Albert Cutie's TV show (why Fox allowed this to be a part of their network lineup, I don't know)

Ann in her 'in your face' way tries to explain why single motherhood is not the plan of Christ in bringing up children. Now single mothers do their best to raise children because the father for whatever reasons skip out on their duties. Or maybe a death of a husband as Mary had to raise Jesus. We don't know when Joseph was no longer a part of the family (died) but it definitely was not a divorce situation. No scholars support divorce.

God's intent is to have a father and mother raise their children, that is the best way. We should do everything possible to create marriages to be strong and lasting and most importantly mothers and father partners with God.

Now Coulter gets a whacking from the audience who comprise mostly of single mom's and that suits Cutie just fine. Instead of explaining the proper most successful way to raise a family (Note: this clip doesn't show the complete encounter) but he seems to want to blame the fathers (maybe rightfully so) for their abandonment of their families, though with an audience of mom's, he doesn't know the whole story. No way he's going to lecture the mom's... he's out numbered and let's face it, he's got Coulter on the ropes.

So Coulter's message of children from broken families have a disadvantage and many times end up creating broken families of their own or end up in a life of crime. Not all the time but statistics (as Ann tried to point out) show this. Albert Cutie decides to sidestep these facts and goes with the angry crowd.

Single moms have to deal with the circumstances that befall them, but maybe forming a true relationship before getting married will keep a family of father, mother, children and God strong and life lasting.

Is Albert Cutie really helping the single mom's in the audience or viewing on TV? Is he passing on a Godly message?

Nope

So here's the encounter... but then look at a real priest (Fr. Barron) with a true message about marriage and relationships.

No comparison



...and now the real truth

Maureen Dowd Who?

Why does anybody listen to her?

Why does she think she is the final say on Catholic things...especially Marriage?

I guess she must be answered and AmP has to do it.

Maureen Dowd on Archbishop Dolan & My Dad: “Vintage Deja Vu Dowd”

 Yesterday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd went after Archbishop Dolan’s efforts to protect marriage in New York — and also snuck in a drive-by sniping of my father’s recent comments about (Catholic) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s manifest concubinage, just for good measure.

Governor Cuomo is for gay marriage, so you can guess who Dowd is writing to protect and abet in her column (entitled “Gay Sera, Sera“). My father has responded to Ms. Dowd’s feeble attempts to warp his argument here.
Now why do I title my post “Vintage Deja Vu Dowd”? Because Maureen Dowd has only one argument against the Catholic Church, or any Catholic figure who speaks in the public square. And every time it’s the same. It goes like this: “Pedophile!”
MORE 

More from Carl Olson of Insight Scoop

Weigel on "the rise of the anti-Catholic Catholics" (specifically, Maureen Dowd)

Ecclesiastes notwithstanding, there is something new under the sun in the annals of American anti-Catholicism; and that something is the rise of the anti-Catholic Catholics, self-described Catholics who make a career (or at least part of a career) out of mounting endless attacks on the Church, its settled beliefs, its leadership, and its people. Like the Nast/rationalist anti-Catholicism of the past, today’s Catholic anti-Catholicism is a left-of-center phenomenon that, in secular guise, often reflects the critiques of the Church mounted by so-called “Catholic progressives”: The Church is hopelessly sexist; the Church is hopelessly sex-obsessed; the Church is cruel to women and gays; the Church is hypocritical. And, of course and most recently, the Church is a global criminal conspiracy of child rapists and their abettors, which “fact” validates the other charges in the standing indictment just cited. ...

MORE

Chart: Marriage Indicators 1970-2008

These are not surprising indicators in my mind.

Disheartening but not surprising considering how marriage is view today on TV and movies, books and the news media. Not to mention our present administration.

Introducing the Marriage Index

A good reason why religious and lay leaders alike should look at a newly released report, The Marriage Index, co-published by the Institute for American Values and the newly established National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting (NCAAMP). Signed by a bipartisan and racially diverse group of scholars and leaders, the report proposes a tool, the Marriage Index, to assess the health of marriage as a U.S. social institution over time.

MORE

Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Marriage

Someone told me that Webster Dictionary now has a new definition for the word 'Marriage' to include same sex marriage.

I didn't believe it so I looked it up online:

Pronunciation: \'mer-ij, 'ma-rij\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English mariage, from Anglo-French, from marier to marry
Date: 14th century

1 a (1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage b: the mutual relation of married persons : wedlock c: the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage2: an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected ; especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities3: an intimate or close union

(red emphasis is mine)

I don't know when this change actually took place and I'm not sure that the print copy has caught up to the online version. But if it has our school children will now be tested to include this definition in their vocabulary testing.

California: YES on Marriage!

California has come through with a resounding YES on proposition 8.

52% YES ; 48% NO

Marriage = One Man & One Woman

Amen.

LATimes: Proposition 8

Other Proposition results

Marriage...alive and well?

I don't know how official this survey is but I'm an optimist at heart and let's face it, this is the first good news on marriage as an institution that I've heard in a long time.

According to this survey by a global research firm AC Nielsen on Valentines day claims that 70% of the world believes marriage is for life.

Muslim and Catholic strongholds in Asia topped global rankings in favor of lifelong marriage in the poll of 25,000 people across 46 countries.

Indonesians were the keenest on marriage for life. The survey showed that 97 percent of them believed in the concept, followed closely by Turks at 92 percent as well as Filipinos and Malays, both 89 percent.

How does the West measure up in this survey you ask?

In the West, Americans turned out to be the strongest believers in marrying for life, while Europeans from Catholic and conservative countries showed an unexpected lack of enthusiasm for the concept.

"Record high divorce statistics combined with rising co-habitation rates and an increasing number of children born to common-law couples in the past 10 years have certainly made the western world wonder if the age-old concept of "to have and to hold till death to us part" is fast becoming a dying tradition," AC Nielsen Europe President Patrick Dodd said in a statement.

We'll be celebrating our 25th anniversary this July and I attribute this all to God's immense Love and givingness. He has provided me with the most wonderful woman as a wife and mother to our children.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day.

Guy's, don't want another year to bring home some flowers. Bring them home..... just because.

51% of Women are now living Without Spouse...

That's the New York Times article that was posted today.

"Several factors are driving the statistical shift. At one end of the age spectrum, women are marrying later or living with unmarried partners more often and for longer periods. At the other end, women are living longer as widows and, after a divorce, are more likely than men to delay remarriage, sometimes delighting in their newfound freedom."

There is no doubt that married couples are in the minority now.

“This is yet another of the inexorable signs that there is no going back to a world where we can assume that marriage is the main institution that organizes people’s lives,” said Prof. Stephanie Coontz, director of public education for the Council on Contemporary Families, a nonprofit research group. “Most of these women will marry, or have married. But on average, Americans now spend half their adult lives outside marriage.”

And this is a good thing? Along with this trend and the fact that birth rates are down, this is not a good thing for our society. I've already pointed out in privious posts how Europe is in decline with more of their people dieing than being born. We can't let this happen here.

William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, a research group in Washington, described the shift as “a clear tipping point, reflecting the culmination of post-1960 trends associated with greater independence and more flexible lifestyles for women.”
“For better or worse, women are less dependent on men or the institution of marriage,” Dr. Frey said. “Younger women understand this better, and are preparing to live longer parts of their lives alone or with nonmarried partners. For many older boomer and senior women, the institution of marriage did not hold the promise they might have hoped for, growing up in an ‘Ozzie and Harriet’ era.”

Another so called expert toots the horn of "independence" "Choice".

“Although we can help people ‘do’ marriage better, it is simply delusional to construct social policy or make personal life decisions on the basis that you can count on people spending most of their adult lives in marriage,” said Professor Coontz, the author of “Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage.”

Speaking of delusional...

Read the rest if you dare...