Signatories to the Correctio Filialis stand currently at 217. I mention this because I know that many priests were apprehensive about joining what journalists might deem a Small Number. There is a natural sense that, the more who sign, the less easy it will be for anybody to embark upon a strategy of bullying. So if your own benchmark was "Above 200 might make it safe", that is where we are. But ... no hassle ... I'm not trying to chivvy anybody ... I know that we are all in different situations. And I know you will support us in your Masses and prayers. Those dear reverend brethren in the Sacred Priesthood who have written to me ... thank you. I have been deeply moved.
There are more male than female signatories. I shall probably get into trouble for saying this, but I sometimes feel that women (unlike men!) underestimate their own importance and the value of their opinions. The drafters of the Correctio view things quite differently! I would very much like to see zillions of academic female signatures!! Make the Correctio a Women's Movement!!!
This whole thing is intimately a woman's movement, because it is primarily women whom are abandoned by faithless husbands. It's a clear majority.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, AL seems to authorize the faithless husbands, whom have cast off their wives like chattel, to receive communion.
Someone will be damned for this state of affairs. Of that, I have confidence interval.
Here in the United States 75% of all divorces are initiated by the wife. The myth that women are largely the victims of men in divorce needs to be dispelled.
DeleteAL seems to authorize the faithless husbands, whom have cast off their wives like chattel, to receive communion.
ReplyDeleteThis suggests a course of action. Stop treating all divorces as if they were the same thing, rather than the same consequence. If the husband has abandoned his wife, then he has initiated the divorce and the wife is the victim, not the perpetrator. Welcome the wronged wife back into communion, but not the philandering husband.
You know full well that no person has any right to justify their own adultery on the basis of their spouse's.
DeleteI'd sign right away if I could with my title 'Mr. Nobody, unknown member of Christ's mystical Body'.
ReplyDeleteWelcome the wronged wife back into communion, but not the philandering husband.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding (I stand open to correction) is that that is already the situation, as long as the wronged wife
1) has tried and is open to restoration of normal conjugal relations
2) has not entered into a new relationship herself.
The above is likely to be a sweeping generalisation. I am not sure, for example, of the current position regarding formal separation a mensa et thoro.
I was not thinking of self-justification, but of mercy shown to the victim, who had nor formed the intention but was subjected to it against her will. The same might apply to one who has suffered abuse, even if the abused spouse initiated the divorce.
ReplyDeleteAs far as "wronged wives" go, in America, at least, the majority of divorces are initiated by women, who take the children and a huge chunk of the man's money, and the reasons --give our "no-fault" system-- are often as trivial as boredom. So let's not play the Victorian White Knight game too much, gentlemen. Women are as fully shaped by the sin of Eve and Adam as men and today's society gives them full rein for it.
ReplyDelete65% of adultery in the United States is committed by wives cheating on their husbands. This statistic was put out last year by a female psychologist and marriage counselor.
Delete"This whole thing is intimately a woman's movement, because it is primarily women whom are abandoned by faithless husbands. It's a clear majority."
ReplyDeleteI am unsure where you got this impression from. The social sciences think that wen and women cheat on their spouses at about equal rates nowadays, though of course it's impossible to know how accurate research on this sort of thing is. Furthermore, at least on this side of the Atlantic, women initiate about 70% of divorces and very few are on the grounds of adultery or battery.
"Falling out of love" is much more commonly given as the reason for divorce, and it's easy to see why - popular culture constantly sells the idea of self-actualization and fulfillment by abandoning a husband (cf. "Eat, Pray, Love") or by threatening to divorce/cheat on him (cf. "Fireproof"). The Atlantic and the Grauniad have both published several op-eds touting the benefits of having affairs and divorcing your boring loving husband.
Here in the US, women initiate a full 70% of divorces.
ReplyDeleteAs for "Welcome the wronged wife back into communion"
What's there to welcome? She was never out of communion.