Ontario Bishops Warn “Our Children and grandchildren will Pay” Price of Marriage “Experimentation”

TORONTO, September 3, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A statement on marriage signed by every Ontario Catholic Bishop was sent to all dioceses in the province of Ontario yesterday for distribution to parishes.  The Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops informed LifeSite that the letter is to be read or distributed this weekend (6-7 Sept) or next.  In the two-page letter addressed to Catholics in the province, the Bishops State that with the move to alter the definition of marriage, “Parliamentarians must realize that they are undertaking a huge experiment in social engineering.”  They warn that “Similar experiments in the past, such as changes in the law concerning divorce, have had detrimental, not to say disastrous, effects on our society.”“Those who advocated ready access to divorce have undoubtedly been surprised by the degree to which it has encouraged marriages to be undertaken without appropriate preparation and commitment, and has encouraged some married couples to divorce without making real attempts to work out their differences.  The legacy is a trail of wrecked families and a reservoir of social problems, particularly for children,” says the letter.  In their gravest warning on the issue thus far, the Bishops wrote, “We must all remember that there is a price to pay for these experiments. Our children and grandchildren will pay it.”  See the complete letter on the OCCB website (Acrobat format):  https://www.occb.on.ca/english/MarriageFinaleng.pdf