Sociological Reductionism Masquerades as Pastoral Triumph in Conciliar Marriage Study
EWTN News portal reports on a study by the Institute for Family Studies claiming that “churchgoing Catholic couples” exhibit higher marital happiness and sexual satisfaction than their secular counterparts, based on data from the General Social Survey, CARA, YouGov, and Pew Research. The report, co-authored by Brad Wilcox and commissioned by the Novus Ordo organization FOCUS, frames faith and family as “antidotes to isolation” while admitting pervasive pornography use among religious men and lower marital happiness among large Catholic families due to insufficient “community support.” The study reduces the sacrament of matrimony to a metric of sociological well-being, entirely silent on the state of grace, the indissolubility of the bond before God, and the necessity of the traditional Mass and sacraments for supernatural fruitfulness.