Originally published at The Crux
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At the Vatican conference on Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia, that took place in Rome Oct. 7-14, one of the biggest talking points was the dwindling number of young people who are getting married in the Church.
“We cannot ignore the fact that the number of marriages is currently declining throughout the world, both civil marriages and marriages celebrated in the Church,” said Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life.
Farrell said it is not just the clergy that is concerned with the declining rates, but the parents of young people too.
“Pastors are not alone in facing this concern. It is felt first and foremost by the many Christian parents whose children suffer from loneliness, remain hesitant to make a lasting commitment, or categorically reject the path that their parents themselves had embraced with joy,” he said.
The statistics are sobering: In the United States, for example, Catholic marriages have fallen by nearly 75 percent over roughly half a century even as the Catholic population has increased.
In Spain, in 2024 the country’s bishops’ conference said there were 31,462 Catholic weddings when in 2023 the number was 33,500. A recent report
