An English bishop has invited Catholics to propose marriage as a path to holiness to new generations in the face of a “cataclysmic” national flight from the institution.

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury told couples celebrating landmark wedding anniversaries in his diocese that the decline of marriage has become so severe that the institution was on its way to disappearing from the social landscape of the country. 

He warned the congregation in St Columba’s Church, Chester, that the consequences of the collapse of marriage in the UK “are only beginning to be worked out, not least for the well-being of children”.