The issue of marriage and divorce is receiving increased attention this week after the proposal put to parliament today to make divorces possible by agreement at a notary, a plan that is doomed to fail as it lacks support from the governing Smer-SD party and the KDH Christian democrats.
Pavol Hrusovsky from the KDH referred to the idea as posing a threat not just to Slovak society, but to the whole of human civilisation. The motion will most surely be rejected, but it has stirred up some dialogue and emotion in parliament, at least. Almost 1 in 2 marriages now end in divorce, as social networks boom and equal opportunities make woman in particular more ready to give up and go it alone. There were 47 divorces to every 100 weddings in Slovakia in 2010, with a figure of 48 for 2009.
According to an article in SME daily this week based on last year’s census, the whole idea of marriage is becoming less attractive for young people, who are opting to keep their single status until later in life, or completely. One priest told the daily that “Young people have no faith in God and that marriage has nothing to offer them”.
The failure to adopt this motion, by a substantial majority, demonstrates just how out of touch with the real world Sk politicians are.
Making the divorce procedure as difficult, protracted and expensive as possible is not going to prevent the break-up of marriages, it will, however, leave many vunerable women and children stuck in intollerable situations and often in danger of injury or worse.
If a couple, by mutual agreement, decide to part, then why can’t this be done amicably and quickly. It would save court time and protect women and children, especially from questionable judgements. Dragging couples through public hearings with witnesses for both sides can only incite animosity between the parties with the real possibility of violence ensuing whilst it drains money from the “pot”. The only winners in this situation are those who are not effected by the process – judges and lawyers will gain financially and the RC church will still be able to have the blinkered opinion that it is protecting the sanctity of marriage.
As for social trends toward marriage – no suprises there at all. We have many, mainly female friends. A number of the single ones cite their own mothers’ experiences as a reason for staying single, the divorced ones say they will never remarry, the few married couples we know appear to be happy but they have adopted “modern wedlock”, all the women work in their own careers, the husbands all help with the children and the home and treat their wives as equals not chattels. – All great guys, decent, honest and hard working.
My partner and I have started a trend amongst some of our friends of living together, a common practise in the Western Countries but has a stigma here for some reason. The self proclaimed religious element of my partners’ family will not invite us to their homes because we are not married yet two of this self-righteous group are in the process of getting divorced because the husband can’t keep his todger in his pants and has had a string of affairs with young girls going back years – the wife has finally had enough after his decades of infidelity.
Religion has no place in politics and vice versa. The RC churchs’ continued medieval view of the world has no place in a modern society – if people want to follow the faith, that’s their choice and right but when religious dogma is imposed on the majority it is a breach of their fundamental rights.
I have been predicting for ages that the divorce rate will escalate in Slovakia. I’m just surprised it isn’t a lot higher already. The reasons are simple: the people are selfish, only think about money and have unrealistic expectations about sex. It doesn’t help that marriage is an archaic institution which has not adapted and has allowed the western influence of feminism (I hate to say it, but quite rightly in some cases) to undervalue it.
The Church should modernize and then, just maybe, it will be able to influence things. They seem to forget that there used to be practical reasons why people needed to marry. A lot of those simply don’t exist any more.
~~~One priest told the daily that “Young people have no faith in God and that marriage has nothing to offer them”. ~~~
Well not the hand wringing Pavol Hrusovsky from the KDH version of marriage and what does a Priest know about marriage anyway ???
As for posing a threat not just to Slovak society, but to the whole of human civilisation………well huh ??? Does the RC Church actually live and work in the 10th century or the 21st ??? Hide your condoms everyone !