A SHOCKING ANNOUNCEMENT FROM CALIFORNIA'S PREVIOUS GOVERNOR AND FIRST LADY...........

Stunning news broke from the Offices of former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, this morning that he and his wife, former First Lady Maria Shriver, are separating after twenty five years of marriage.  They have four children.  The couple has supposedly been living apart for some time.  I note that Arnold's released statement spoke of their assessing their future, "relationship", not their marriage.  Reports are surfacing according to KCRA 3 News, that Maria was pulled shouting and screaming into the 2003 gubernatorial recall election, only learning about the decision to run on the,"Tonight Show", with Jay Leno.  She is said to also have thought they had a one term only understanding.  So IT sounds like their marriage has been an unhappy alliance for quite some time.  The Schwarzenegger press release closes with a request for privacy.  And privacy they deserve, as does any married, separating, or divorced, couple.  What causes such high profile, and prominent, political, marriages as theirs and Albert and Tipper Gore's, to disintegrate after so many decades ?  Is it the pressures of the public spotlight, coupled with lives that drift apart, as husbands and wives, increasingly find them themselves going in different directions, or spending inordinate time away from one another.  It is sad, whenever the bond of love is broken between married couples.  Let us pray for all vulnerable couples, that they will place the priority on their mutual love; not on the notiriety of celebrity and fame.  Unless the news of this martial breakdown merits firther mention, I believe their request for privacy needs to be honored.  God Bless The Bond Of Marriage,   Fr.  Troy