In the debate on marriage and divorce, reference has been made time and again to the common good. I suppose more than one definition has been given to the common good.

Somehow it has to be an element of good, not of harm, for the whole and not just for a part, be it a minority or majority of society.

The object of legislation is the common good. The main argument of the Marriage Without Divorce movement, that should appeal to one and all, is the common good. In other words, that movement contends that a law which introduces divorce, that is, the legal dissolution of marriage with the possibility of remarriage, goes against the common good.

Indeed, in the people’s perception of marriage, normally taken to be permanent, a substantial amount of harm has already been made by the very possibility of our legislators passing a law that claims to dissolve marriage. That, I suppose, is already harm to the common good.