Thompson’s observation is reflected in the evidence. Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution and Adam Thomas of Georgetown University have found that much of the growth in child poverty from the late 1960s to the 1990s can be attributed to the growth in single parenthood, and that “child poverty rates would drop substantially” if more low-income parents were married. My research with the Urban Institute’s Robert Lerman suggests that about one-third of the growth in family-income inequality can be linked to declines in marriage since the 1970s. Economic stagnation among ordinary American families would also be lower were it not for the retreat from marriage: We estimate that the “growth in median income of families with children would be 44 percent higher if the United States enjoyed 1980 levels of married parenthood today.”

The bottom line: At least in the United States, Francis is indeed right to argue that the “evidence is mounting” that the retreat from marriage is “associated with increased poverty and a host of other social ills.”

Bridging Left and Right to Help Today’s Families

Unlike many observers of contemporary family life, Francis places the blame for the family’s current predicament on forces both inside and outside the family. It’s about individual responsibility and the larger economic forces confronting families. “I cannot hide my concern for the family, which is threatened, perhaps as never before, from within and without,” the pope told Congress this week, fingering a culture that does not honor marriage and the sacrifices required for a strong and stable family life, as well as an economy that does not support the formation and maintenance of strong and stable families for all too many Americans. His diagnosis, and his prescription for addressing the challenges facing families, draw on the best insights from the left and the right.

I’m hoping his irenic approach and example may encourage conservatives and liberals to seek common ground where they can to address the economic and cultural challenges facing families today. Expanding parental leave and child tax credits for families, tackling marriage penalties facing low-income families, beefing up vocational education and apprenticeship training for young adults from predominantly poor communities, and reforming criminal-justice policies should all be on the table when it comes to considering public-policy options for strengthening today’s families.

But any solution also requires looking beyond Washington, given the cultural forces at work. I have made the case for designing privately run local and state cultural campaigns, modeled on the nation’s successful campaign to prevent teenage childbearing, to encourage young adults to put the baby carriage after the marriage.

In the civic arena, churches also have to step up to the plate. The Catholic Church in the United States, for instance, has done a relatively poor job of integrating poor and working-class families into its life in recent years. The figure above shows that Catholics without a college degree are about one-fourth less likely to regularly attend Mass, compared to Catholics with a college degree. My own research with sociologist Nicholas Wolfinger likewise indicates that ordinary Catholics rarely hear about marriage from the pulpit when they attend church. Perhaps the pope’s visit to Philadelphia’s World Meeting of Families will inspire priests, pastors, and lay leaders to take a more active role in inviting poor and working-class families in their communities on Sundays, and to speak more clearly about the joys and challenges of marriage and family life. Steps like these—both inside the Catholic Church and other religious traditions—could play a role in strengthening marriage and family life in the nation, given that churchgoing seems to foster more marriage and less divorce.

If the Pope’s visit to the City of Brotherly Love attracts as much attention and goodwill as has his visit to the nation’s capital, such a religiously inspired family renaissance might just be possible. And that would be good for the cause of social justice.