Some parishes have instituted associations for single parents, to help address this problem. In a sense, newly divorced women are the counterpart to the widows that the early Christians were enjoined to care for. Certainly such women are vulnerable to remarrying not just for love and companionship, but also from the additional motive of subsisting and raising their families, where no substantial public assistance is forthcoming.
CARE FOR WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OLD TESTAMENT FREE
The cases often involve divorcees abandoned by spouses who decide they are gay, or wreak violence on their spouse and children, or just decide that they want to be free of children or to remarry. Today the Church is debating whether Catholic women, who are frequently in that situation, and have subsequently remarried, can receive Communion. Particularly affected are housewives who depended on husbands for support, and are suddenly abandoned, left to “pick up the pieces.” And then there are workingwomen whose income after divorce is insufficient to maintain a home, provide for children, and so forth. Perhaps an even more formidable problem now, however, for the Church as well as governments (in the aftermath of the sexual revolution and the era of no-fault divorces) is the plethora of divorcees, who often become impoverished guardians of single-parent families. In modern times, in spite of longer life spans, and the social networks available in industrialized countries, the problem of assistance to widows and their families still remains. And for early Christian communities, a constant challenge for social justice would have been the needs of widows whose breadwinners had died, and also their children. Thus widows, including widows with children, would outnumber widowers. Women, of course, have always lived, on average, longer than men. If we adjust for that, the life expectancy at age 10 was probably about 45-47. In the early Christian social environment, the average lifespan was about thirty-five years – mostly the result of extremely high infant mortality. Paul points to various factors that should govern the treatment of widows in Timothy’s congregation. 1:27) Greek converts complained to the Apostles that their widows were not receiving the same treatment as Hebrews (Acts 6:1). James emphasizes care for widows and orphans as a major “work” which should characterize the faith of Christians. In the New Testament, Jesus berates the Pharisees for their injustices to widows (Mt. The book of Job, the Psalms, and in particular the prophets, continually point out the mistreatment of widows and orphans as an evil that will be avenged by God. Exhortations and provisions for their treatment are spelled out in Deuteronomy and Exodus. The care of widows and orphans is a constant theme in both the Old and New Testaments.
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