The benefits of good marital relationships “extend far beyond the home into the community” and society has a collective vested interest in ensuring that marriages work well, President Mary McAleese has said.

She was speaking at the launch of National Marriage Week, an initiative to support and encourage married couples and those preparing for marriage and make them aware of available resources.

President McAleese said: “When marital relationships work well, spouses are happier, children are happier and the benefits extend far beyond the home into the community.

“We have a collective vested interest in ensuring that relationships within households are healthy and not dysfunctional for we all pay a huge price for the damaged and dysfunctional men, women and children who emerge from the wreckage of bad marriages and bad relationships.”

The event, backed by a number of groups, including the Iona Institute, is dedicated to promoting stable marriages.

There are also a number of Christian marriage counselling organisations, such as Accord and Retrouvaille, involved in sponsoring the event, and these aim to use the week to give couples an opportunity to focus on their relationships.

Those who are preparing for marriage, as well as those already married, will be encouraged to invest in their relationship ‘in a special way’ during this week. Marriage Week Ireland seeks to highlight the benefits of healthy marriages to society, whilst seeking to educate and inform couples on how to enhance their relationship.

Launched in 2009, the week will see different organisations run a number events to promote and support marriage and family life from the 8th – 14th February 2010. Access to these events can be made through the event’s web-site by clicking here.

Meanwhile, Pope Benedict has called on married couples “never to lose sight of the profound reasons and sacredness” of marriage.

Speaking on Monday to the Pontifical Council on the Family, the Pope referred to the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, said the family was “the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members, especially children”.

He added that it was “precisely the family, founded on marriage between a man and a woman, which is the greatest help that can be given to children”.

Children, the Pope continued, “want to be loved by a mother and a father who love one another, and they need to dwell, grow and live together with both parents, because the maternal and paternal figure are complementary in the education of children and in the construction of their personality and their identity”.

“Hence, it is important that everything possible is done to make them grow in a united and stable family,” he said.