His Excellency Archbishop Romulo Valles of Davao, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in a statement, highlighted that couples who overcome trials in marriage together grow in virtue. The nation’s bishops are speaking out against the measure, warning that legalizing divorce in the country would be detrimental to couples and families, especially children. A strongly Catholic country, the Philippines is one of the only nations where the practice of divorce is not legal, along with Vatican City. The new divorce bill, which was authored by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, would change the country’s laws against divorce and make the practice legal throughout the nation.
As reported by Catholic News Agency, His Grace Archbishop Valles stated “In a context in which divorce is presented as an easy option, marriages and families are bound to break up more easily. Divorce, while it may indeed provide quick legal remedies for some seemingly failed marriages,’ might end up destroying even those marriages that could have been saved by dialogues or the intervention of family, friends, pastors and counselors.”
His Grace Archbishop Valles concluded his pastoral statement written on behalf of the country’s Bishops, by emphasizing the emotional and psychological toll that divorce imposes on children, warning that if the bill is passed then more children would grow disoriented and deprived of the care of both parents.
