In Surprise Move, Cardinal Sarah Endorses Self-Published Book on Harms of Divorce to Children

This was unexpected!

Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, recently sent a letter endorsing the book Primal Loss, edited and self-published by Leila Miller, which reveals the often traumatic experiences of children whose parents divorced.

Miller is a well-known Catholic blogger and author. She came from an intact family herself, so she first learned about how harmful divorce can be on children after an adult friend from a broken household opened up to her about her childhood experiences.

Concerned that this was a perspective lost in the current debate in the Catholic Church about divorce and remarriage, Miller put out a request on social media for adult children of divorce to share their stories with her, which she then compiled into the book Primal Loss. She decided to self-publish the book so she could ensure the book maintained its integrity on a very hot-button topic in our society.

“Your writing on this subject is both timely and urgent,” the Cardinal wrote in a personal letter to Miller, who had sent him a copy. “How necessary it is to support and defend the beauty of the Christian family as revealed to us by God from the very first pages of Sacred Scripture!

“In front of the growing attacks against the family, studies such as your own show the damaging and enduring consequences of a world vision, which denies the value of sacrifice and giving one’s life to the end for the other. I will certainly do what I can to promote Primal Loss.”