Peruvian archbishop: getting divorced is easier than canceling cell phone service

Piura, Peru, Jul 28, 2008 / 08:50 am

Archbishop Jose Antonio Eguren Anselmi of Piura called on officials last week to promote measures that help the family instead of weaken it, referring to recent passage of a law facilitating divorce, which he said, makes it “easier to get a divorce in Peru than to cancel your cell phone service.”

During a Mass celebrating the country’s Independence Day, Archbishop Eguren first expressed his concern about the “dark forces” that are seeking to “limit the inviolable value of human life itself” in the country.

“Abortion is always a crime because in the human being, in every human being, in every stage and condition of life, a reflection of the very reality of God shines forth,” he said.  The archbishop explained that “the Magisterium of the Church, based on reason and natural law, has always proclaimed constantly the sacred and inviolable character of each human life, from conception to natural death.”

He also expressed his “sorrow and profound sadness” over the approval of a law facilitating divorce that “rather than promoting the strengthening of marriages,” including “those that are experiencing difficulties, opts rather to facilitate their dissolution, making an issue that has great social relevance into a mere administrative procedure, because the family founded upon marriage is the place where future citizens of our country are reared.”

“As a friend of mine recently pointed out, today in Peru it is easier to get divorced than to cancel your cell phone service,” he said.

Archbishop Eguren noted that society is “passing through a serious crisis of principles and moral and institutional values.  As a consequence, the social fabric is weakening and criminal and immoral conduct that harms the education of our children and young people is spreading.”