CANON LAW

 

I visited Richard and Shelley today and we had a pleasant chat.

At one stage we discussed Robert's religion and its vagaries, and one of these is the Catholic Church's official position on divorce and remarriage. We discussed this for obvious reasons which I won't go in to here.

When I got home, and as The Old Girl has gone off to see one of her French Film Festival choices, I looked up The Catechism* to check out the  Catholic Church's official position on divorce and remarriage.

As you might appreciate it's a jumbled mess of homage to ancient scripture and ambiguous gobbledygook peddled by unmarried men in frocks to naive and compliant followers. 

Here's a summary of what has been written. Hang on to your hat!

1. Divorce, understood as the dissolution of a marriage, is not possible between two baptised persons

Jesus forbids divorce, decreeing that husband and wife are “no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6). 

The Church is clear that “a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death” 

Note that when the Church grants an annulment it is not “divorce, Catholic-style.” A divorce breaks (or tries to break) a real marital union; an annulment recognises that no real marital union ever existed. Persons whose marriages are annulled by a Church tribunal never were bound in marriage to begin with, and so are free to marry in the Church even though they are civilly divorced.

2. Divorce and remarriage makes for adultery

Since marital life ordinarily includes sex, remarriage after divorce creates the conditions for adultery. On this, Jesus did not mince words: “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:18; cf. Mark 10:6-8). But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress (Rom. 7:2-3).

 
3. Divorce is a “grave offence against the natural law”

The natural law is another term for the universal moral law of God. We are all bound to this unchanging moral truth, and there are few things more primal, more inherent in creation itself, than the marriage covenant. Marriage is the basis for the family, and the family is the foundation of every human society 

4. Divorce “introduces disorder into the family and society”

Divorce “claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death”, and human societies simply cannot flourish where marriages are broken and families shattered. 

5. Divorce is “contagious”

Divorce spreads like a contagion. When a woman gets divorced, it plants a seed of that possibility in her friends who are feeling unsatisfied and “unhappy” in their own marriages. This can also happen with men who find younger or more “understanding” women elsewhere, and decide they are no longer compatible with their wives. 

6. Divorce and separation are two different things.

Divorce is an attempt to break the marriage bond whereas separation is simply that—the cessation of common conjugal living between the spouses. The Catechism states that “the separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law”.  Physical and/or grave mental danger to spouse or children is cause for separation, as is adultery. “In all cases” conjugal living must be restored if and when the cause for separation ceases, unless the bishop establishes otherwise.

7. Civil divorce may be “tolerated” under certain circumstances

Civil divorce is not embraced, but only “tolerated”—and only if there is no other possible way to secure legal/financial rights or care of the children. “Tolerance” of a civil divorce does not touch the true bond of the marriage, which stands intact between the spouses and in the sight of God.

8. A spouse who is divorced unwillingly is not culpable for the breaking of conjugal life

It isn’t just a remarriage that constitutes a sin for divorced spouses, it’s the breaking of the conjugal life in the first place. The one who unjustly divorces his or her spouse is guilty of a grave sin—even if there is no remarriage—and should not approach Holy Communion. By contrast, the innocent spouse who remains faithful to his or her marriage vows is not culpable for the sin of divorce and, assuming he or she is free from any other mortal sins, is free to receive Holy Communion.


As you can see the Catholic Church and any Christians and Catholics complying with this are not in the real world. Maybe that explains the theological doctrine that a believer belongs to the kingdom of heaven rather than to earth and secular society. 'Other Worldly' in other words.

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