Couples in crisis can rediscover hope with help of other couples - Pope
(September 26, 2008) Pope Benedict on Friday underscored the indissolubility of Christian
marriage, saying couples whose relationships enter into crisis can with the help of
God and other couples make of the difficult moments a passageway to a new phase of
life. “Today, in fact when a couple enters into crisis, many people are ready to
advise separation,” the Pope observed, adding “Even to couples married in name of
the Lord divorce is easily proposed, forgetting that man cannot separate what God
has joined together.” He was speaking to Retrouvaille, an international movement
of married couples founded in 1977 in Canada, committed to the continued healing of
their marriages and sharing their stories and talents to promote and spread the healing
ministry to other couples in crisis. Pope Benedict told the group that that when a
marriage enters a crisis, transforming a dream into a nightmare and despair, there
is need for a group of true friends who are ready to share a little of their hope
with those who have lost it. Thus at the moment of break-up, the Pope said, you become
for the troubled couple a concrete possibility of a positive point of reference in
whom they can confide in their moment of despair. Regarding them as custodians of
a great hope for spouses who have lost it, Pope Benedict told members of Retrovaille
that for this mission of theirs they need to feed their spiritual life.