Scottish Catholic Observer

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury has warned that legally-binding prenuptial agreements would invite engaged couples in England and Wales to prepare for their divorce before they even married under the Law Commission plans going before the UK Government this month.

Speaking at a diocesan Mass in celebration of Marriage and Family Life, Bishop Davies (above) said that the Matrimonial Property, Needs and Agreements proposals, due to be submitted to Justice Secretary Chris Grayling later this month, will ‘shatter the traditional understanding of marriage as a life-long union between a man and a woman and undermine marriages of the future.’ The proposals would enshrine prenuptial agreements in civil law.

Calling on Catholics in his own diocese to ‘guard the truth about marriage with greater effort,’ Bishop Davies said that ‘in this week of incessant storms’ we have ‘been reminded how it is too late to build defences once rivers break their banks and tidal surges hit our shores.’

“Long-standing foundations are already in danger of being washed away,” the bishop said. “So too, in the life of our society it will surely be too late to protect the great good of marriage if we have allowed the foundations of this timeless institution to be eroded away by our own neglect. We must actively guard the truth about marriage with greater effort amid the storms of our time so this vital, life-giving institution is not undermined.

“Prenuptial agreements may soon become enshrined in civil law on the recommendation of the Law Commission. Our society would be proposing to couples seeking marriage that they prepare their own divorce settlement before making the life-long promises of marriage.

“It is a legal provision which would surely empty the words of the marriage promise for ‘better for worse… to love and to cherish till death do we part’ of all meaning.”

The bishop went on to say: “Prenuptial agreements would render these promises provisional by the legal preparations which anticipate divorce. We must ask ourselves today, what message does this send to couples considering marriage?

“What message does this send to the young at a moment when the institution of marriage stands at such a historically, low ebb? Should we not be putting our efforts into guarding and building-up the institution of marriage rather than steadily undermining it?”

The Law Commission proposals, which have been drawn up over four years, will be published on February 27.

Bishop Davies told the congregation at Shrewsbury Diocese’s Mass for Marriage and Family Life that the ‘crisis’ of marriage would be addressed at the Vatican Synod of Bishops, which will be held in Rome in October.

The bishop said it would be false to suggest that the forthcoming synod would either change or obscure the teaching of the Catholic Church that marriage is a life-long exclusive union between a man and a woman.

“The reverse is, of course, true,” Bishop Davies said. “Pope Francis wants us to guard the gift of marriage.”

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