ted in the State of Ohio. If such is
Ohio's record, what must be the matrimonial condition of Indiana, which is
called the paradise of discontented spouses.

In Connecticut there were, in 1875, four thousand three hundred and
eighty-five marriages, and four hundred and sixty-six divorces from the
marriage bond. The number of divorces obtained in the same State during
the last fifteen years has reached five thousand three hundred and
ninety-one. This is the record of a State whose public school system is
considered the most thorough and perfect in the country. The statistics
given of Ohio and Connecticut will enable us to form some idea of the
fearful catalogue of divorces annually obtained in the United States.

There are some who regard the Catholic Church as too severe in proclaiming
the absolute indissolubility of marriage. But it should be borne in mind
that it is not the Church, but the Divine Founder of the Christian
religion, that has given us the law. She merely enforces its observance.

The law, how rigorous soever, is mercy itself, when compared with the
cruel consequences which follow from the easy concession of divorce.

The facility with which marriage is annulled is most injurious to the
morals of individuals, of the family and of society. It leads to
ill-assorted and hasty marriages, because persons are less circumspect in
making a compact which may be afterwards dissolved almost at will. It
stimulates a discontented and unprincipled husband or wife to lawlessness,
quarrels and even adultery, well knowing that the very crime will afford a
pretext and legal grounds for a separation. It engenders between husband
and wife fierce litigations about the custody of their offspring. It
deprives the children of the protecting arm of a father, or of the gentle
care of a mother, and too frequently consigns them to the cold charity of
the world; for the married couple who are wanting in conjugal love for one
another are too often destitute also of parental affection. In a word, it
brings into the household a blight and desolation which neither wealth nor
luxury can repair.

There is but one remedy to this social distemper, and that is an absolute
prohibition of divorce _a vinculo_, in accordance with the inflexible rule
of the Gospel and of the ancient Church. In Catholic countries divorces
are exceedingly rare, and are obtained only by such as have thrown off the
yoke of the Church. If the sacred laws of Matrimon