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Manfred's story is sad, but probably quite common. One cannot blame popes for his friends' children's situations. The popes are too far from the lives of most Catholics. One might ascribe some blame to the local bishop and priests, for not catechising the children sufficiently when they were young, but who can say how Grace works in individual souls. It may turn out that the friends' children were brought up correctly in the faith, but have fallen away under temptation of some kind -- temptation towards some misunderstood spiritual end, or for material reasons. Louise gives the right answer in her comment. The parents may have been putting the best face on the situation that they could. Manfred does not reveal enough information about the one daughter's situation for us to understand the full picture: divorced after a year of marriage seems a little unusual, and it may be that the parish priest was not rigorous enough in marriage preparation training. Clearly, blame for this situation cannot be laid at any one door, and like most human affairs, it probably does not have a single cause. As Louise says, we can only pray and leave the rest up to God. - Peter