Dodge City, Kan., Mar 3, 2012 / 13:03 pm
First the bad news: Since 1972, the number of Catholics in the United States has increased by nearly 17 million; yet, in the same time period there has been a decrease in marriages in the Catholic Church by an astounding 60 percent.
That’s 8.6 marriages per 1,000 in 1972, versus 2.6 per 1,000 today.
According to guest speakers at a Natural Family Planning seminar held recently at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dodge City, Kan., part of the reason for this – a large reason, in fact – is contraception.
The notion may seem difficult to accept. One of the reasons why so many fewer Catholics are marrying is the dramatic increase in the divorce rate. It’s understandable: the national divorce rate is at approximately 50 percent – that’s one out of two marriages ending in a divorce.