Catholic study: Cohabiting couples need help, not scorn
Catholic News Service, August 27, 1999
WASHINGTON – A report sent to the U.S. Catholic bishops Aug. 20 says the wide practice of cohabitation poses major pastoral challenges for church marriage preparation programs.
It says marriages preceded by cohabitation are less likely to succeed than others, but pastoral ministers should approach a cohabiting couple’s decision to marry as “a teachable moment.”
“Here is a unique opportunity to help couples understand the Catholic vision of marriage. Here, too, is an opportunity for evangelization,” the report says. “By supporting the couple’s plans for the future rather than chastising them for the past, the pastoral minister can draw a couple more deeply into the church community and the practice of their faith.”
The 27-page report, “Marriage Preparation and Cohabiting Couples,” was prepared by the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Marriage and Family, headed by Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien of Phoenix.
Designed to help bishops and those in marriage preparation ministry to work pastorally with cohabiting couples who decide to marry, it offers strong evidence that those couples are likely to need much more help than others in order to enter a stable marriage.
According to several studies cited by the report, more than half of all Americans entering a first marriage today cohabit before marriage, and the percentage cohabiting before a second or third marriage is higher.
The report says that by cohabitation it means “both having a sexual relationship and living together in the same residence” while not married.
One of the studies cited says that the number of U.S. couples cohabiting rose from half a million in 1960 to 4 million in 1997.