Children not shown value of marriage, says Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury
Children have been failed because they have not been shown the importance of marriage, the Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury has said.
The Right Reverend Mark Davies made the comments in a homily during mass at Shrewsbury Cathedral where he told the congregation that it is the church's duty to promote marriage as a "divine vocation".
He said: "I am conscious that many of our young people have been failed.
"The vision of marriage as a divine vocation for their own happiness and salvation and that of children has been allowed to fade.
"Often, we find that God's plan for human love, chaste and pure, and the family built on the marriage commitment has not been proposed to them in all its truth and beauty."
Bishop Davies was speaking after Pope Francis asked the Synod of Bishops to address the issue, saying "it is only by the recovery of this divine vision in all its grace and truth that so many wounds can be truly healed".
But Bishop Davies warned that people could face difficulties in giving "such witness" and that believers often found it difficult to speak up for their beliefs.
He said: "We live in strangely volatile times when merely to disagree with someone's direction in life, to question another's lifestyle or a moral choice is perceived as hostility, rejection, even hatred of that person.
"It is, of course, as crazy as being a passenger in a car which has taken a wrong turn and is going in a dangerous direction and remaining silent about the error because we fear to offend the driver."
Bishop Davies urged Catholics to do what they can to promote the institution of marriage. He said: "True care and charity demand we do not remain silent about what is for the happiness and the ultimate good of each other. God's plan is the sure basis for marriage and the family and when this plan is spoken in love, seen in its beauty, the shadows and confusions are dispelled.
"The voices of confusion and dissension will pass. It is this witness to truth and love which will remain. And it is those who have given such witness amid the shadows of the age who will shine like the stars for all eternity."
The bishop spoke as the issue of marriage continues to be one of debate within the Catholic church.
The Vatican is making it much easier for Catholics to annul their marriages following a push by Pope Francis for reformation of a process long criticised for being complicated, costly and out of reach for many.
Rules unveiled last month speed up the annulment process, with a fast-track procedure now available, and allow for appeals to be judged by a local church official rather than the Vatican in what represents a significant decentralisation of power away from Rome.
The Pope said the changes would not encourage or "favour" the nullifying of marriage, but instead alter the time it took to complete the process.
The pontiff wrote that the changes were being made so that "the heart of the faithful that wait for the clarification of their state may not be oppressed for a long time by the darkness of doubt".
