Broken marriages 'a ticking time bomb' - BBC News

Some 650 couples went to mass at the Roman Catholic City Of Westminster Cathedral on Saturday to observe the 43,000 old age of experience of matrimony they have got between them.

Several first made their vows more than than 60 old age ago.

But there was a more than sombre intent behind the event, organised by the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

He wanted to show an illustration of abiding matrimony in order to warn of the dangers of letting it go.

Marriage is at its last degree since records began, and people are getting divorced earlier.

'Society under threat'

About 40% of matrimonies now stop in divorce, with the consequence that almost a one-fourth of children have got experienced household break-up by the clip they are 16.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor depicts it as a time-bomb threatening the unity of British People society.

When things travel wrong, it's no good just brushing things aside

Kathleen O'Driscoll, married for 61 years

"The personal effects of the interruption up of matrimony can be seen because of drugs and crime," he says.

"So many people are in prison...as the consequence of broken marriages. And it's a clip bomb because the personal effects are insidious. It's starting now with divorcement but its personal effects will travel on and on."

Among the couples celebrating decennaries together were Uncle Uncle Tom and Kathleen O'Driscoll, childhood sweeties who tied the knot 61 old age ago, after Kathleen had waited three old age for Tom to go back from war.

A black-and-white photograph shows them - he in new pin-striped lawsuit with a big clove pink in his button-hole, she with a long head covering swept back from her human face - shyly embarking on this long journey.

They joined custody in City Of Westminster Cathedral again to refashion those hard promises.

The Buckinghams knew matrimony would be no piece of cake

The O'Driscolls incrimination the collapse in matrimony on the unwillingness of people to work at their human relationships when the going acquires rough.

"When things travel incorrect it's no good just brushing things aside," states Kathleen. "Just talk about it. If you go forth it, it will only acquire worse."

"Two small words," states Uncle Tom O'Driscoll cheekily. "Yes, dear"

The Buckinghams also knew - 50 old age ago - that matrimony would be no piece of cake.

They met while working in java and custard for a nutrient company and admit that since then they have got been through ups and downs.

"I believe people give up too easily," states Esther Buckingham. "They don't give and take and work at it really. It's not all sunlight and roses."

"And possibly they're afraid to perpetrate themselves permanently," states Bert Buckingham. "And if they don't acquire married, they can see it's an easier manner to interrupt up if they have got to."

But they are a dying breed, who formed their partnerships in an epoch when matrimony was accepted as the bedrock of society.

Wedding Numbers down

Since then divorcement have go easier, and life in unmarried partnerships have lost the stigma it once had.

Indeed some matrimony experts state the of import thing is not marriage, but long-term, stable, monogamous relationships, both for bringing up children and for the unity of society.

Populace policies should be judged on the footing of whether they assist household life or not

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor

The Church have seen matrimony decline, and its ain share in among wedding ceremonies falls away even faster.

But Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor denies that this is just a spiritual issue. He states Christian Christian church weddings, and matrimonies supported by church communities stand up a better opportunity of being fruitful.

"Society must have got some kind of infrastructure," he says. "There's an African saying...'you necessitate a small town to convey up a child'. Populace policies should be judged on the footing of whether they assist household life or not. If they do, they should be approved."

The Church is smarting from statute law - such as as that providing for civil partnerships and outlawing favoritism against homosexual people - that it felt undermined household life and, by extension, the social welfare of children. Others take an exactly opposite view.

Whatever the dissensions about how the modern household should be constituted, the Church take a firm stands it stays indispensable to household life. It states the effects of losing it could be black for us all.