In
his address, Dr Barry Hickey (pictured),
Archbishop Emeritus of Perth, also said that the culture created by artificial
contraception “has led to the separation of sex from marriage itself and has led
to the proliferation of casual unions, to the exploitation of young women, to
false hopes that sexual activity will lead to love, and to the abandonment of
marriage by millions of people around the world”.

He said:
“Increasingly marriage is being promoted as only one of the many options in
human sexual relationships. Recent years have witnessed a sharp rise in
cohabitation before marriage. These so-called partnerships are even taking the
place of marriage.

“Adding to this is
the pressure to change the very definition of marriage from a union of a man and
a woman to a union of two persons of the same sex.”

And he said that
children were the victims of the resulting problems.

He said: “The ideal
of Christian marriage is under great threat. The much publicised romances and
brief marital unions of so-called ‘idols’ of
screen and television only contribute to the trivialisation of marriage.

“The availability of
easy divorce undermines the strength of commitment that true marriage requires
and encourages the view that marriage is no longer a permanent
contract.”

He added: “One must
be concerned about the increasing number of children who are born out of
marriage and those who grow up in single parent families, often without a
father. When the relationship breaks down the father is generally the one who
has to live away from the children. While such a situation calls for compassion
and understanding, it is not ideal.

“Given the stresses
on modern marriage many children are sadly caught in the crossfire of hostility
between their parents. This often does not cease if the marriage or relationship
breaks down.

“In the search for
happiness in a second marriage or in a ‘partnership’, success is not guaranteed
either for the spouses or for the children. The breakdown rate of second and
subsequent marriages is higher than for first marriages. Children are the
victims of adult behaviour.”

The result of this,
he said, was that large numbers of children were taken into care by the State
today because the family unit can no longer cope. The damage done to children
who grow up in such dysfunctional families affected by violence or drugs had
been catalogued many times.

The distress of
children from such backgrounds manifested itself in
mental illness, anti-social behaviour, and tragically, in
suicide.

Studies have shown
that cohabitation before marriage contributes to the early breakdown of
marriage.

Archbishop Hickey
also said that truth was “not respected when couples defy Church teaching on contraception”. This approach,
when taken by couples set up “an inner conflict which undermines faith, and
causes mistrust of Christ’s mandate to teach on matters of human sexuality”.

He said: “The wisdom
of the world has chosen to ignore, even ridicule Catholic teaching on the matter
of openness to children, and has taken a different and tragic path.

“Faced with this, the
Church can either compromise and face irrelevance, or continue to teach Christ’s
truth about marriage, life and love, and pray that the world will
listen.”

He also warned that
around the western world educators “to take over sex education from the parents
because they want a complete break from the past”.

He said: “Teachers in
one country I know are now telling young people before puberty to become
sexually aware and to experiment.

“At puberty they are
urged to become sexually active as soon as possible or they will grow up with
inhibitions, fears of sex and will have psychological problems.

“They are to be fully
instructed in contraception and abortion as ways of continuing to enjoy a full
sexual life. They are told to prefer serial unions of choice rather than
marriage, and to severely limit the numbers of children, as the world is
overpopulated.

“They are to be
trained to deny gender differences of male and female as these are only social
constructs. They are told that homosexuality is a legitimate sexual outlet, and
often preferable because children do not come from their sexual
activities.”

“What we condemn is
now being taught to children as the way to a happy sexually satisfied
life.”