this has been the most e-mailed article for two days running. gotta love those celibate fathers.
Father Pat Connor, a 79-year-old Catholic priest born in Australia
and based in Bordentown, N.J., has spent his celibate life — including
nine years as a missionary in India — mulling connubial bliss. His
decades of marriage counseling led him to distill some “mostly common
sense” advice about how to dodge mates who would maul your happiness.
“Hollywood says you can be deeply in love with someone and then your
marriage will work,” the twinkly eyed, white-haired priest says. “But
you can be deeply in love with someone to whom you cannot be
successfully married.”
For 40 years, he has been giving a
lecture — “Whom Not to Marry” — to high school seniors, mostly girls
because they’re more interested.
“It’s important to do it before
they fall seriously in love, because then it will be too late,” he
explains. “Infatuation trumps judgment.”
I asked him to summarize his talk:
“Never marry a man who has no friends,” he starts. “This usually means
that he will be incapable of the intimacy that marriage demands. I am
always amazed at the number of men I have counseled who have no
friends. Since, as the Hebrew Scriptures say, ‘Iron shapes iron and
friend shapes friend,’ what are his friends like? What do your friends
and family members think of him? Sometimes, your friends can’t render
an impartial judgment because they are envious that you are beating
them in the race to the altar. Envy beclouds judgment.
“Does he
use money responsibly? Is he stingy? Most marriages that founder do so
because of money — she’s thrifty, he’s on his 10th credit card.
“Steer
clear of someone whose life you can run, who never makes demands
counter to yours. It’s good to have a doormat in the home, but not if
it’s your husband.
“Is he overly attached to his mother and her
mythical apron strings? When he wants to make a decision, say, about
where you should go on your honeymoon, he doesn’t consult you, he
consults his mother. (I’ve known cases where the mother accompanies the
couple on their honeymoon!)
“Does he have a sense of humor?
That covers a multitude of sins. My mother was once asked how she
managed to live harmoniously with three men — my father, brother and
me. Her answer, delivered with awesome arrogance, was: ‘You simply
operate on the assumption that no man matures after the age of 11.’ My
father fell about laughing.
“A therapist friend insists that
‘more marriages are killed by silence than by violence.’ The strong,
silent type can be charming but ultimately destructive. That
world-class misogynist, Paul of Tarsus, got it right when he said, ‘In
all your dealings with one another, speak the truth to one another in
love that you may grow up.’
“Don’t marry a problem character
thinking you will change him. He’s a heavy drinker, or some other kind
of addict, but if he marries a good woman, he’ll settle down. People
are the same after marriage as before, only more so.
“Take a
good, unsentimental look at his family — you’ll learn a lot about him
and his attitude towards women. Kay made a monstrous mistake marrying
Michael Corleone! Is there a history of divorce in the family? An
atmosphere of racism, sexism or prejudice in his home? Are his goals
and deepest beliefs worthy and similar to yours? I remember counseling
a pious Catholic woman that it might not be prudent to marry a pious
Muslim, whose attitude about women was very different. Love trumped
prudence; the annulment process was instigated by her six months later.
“Imagine a religious fundamentalist married to an agnostic. One would
have to pray that the fundamentalist doesn’t open the Bible and hit the
page in which Abraham is willing to obey God and slit his son’s throat.
“Finally: Does he possess those character traits that add up to a good
human being — the willingness to forgive, praise, be courteous? Or is
he inclined to be a fibber, to fits of rage, to be a control freak, to
be envious of you, to be secretive?
“After I regale a group with this talk, the despairing cry goes up: ‘But you’ve eliminated everyone!’ Life is unfair.”
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