Were our Hearts Not Burning? (Lk 24:32)
Fr. Paul Ward                                                                      Home

Editorial

The Problem with Catholics and Divorce

            Nobody thinks that divorce is a victory, except the most depraved individual, and even then only for the most depraved reasons. Divorce is a failure, it brings anger, tears, frustration, years of burdens, and a plethora of complications for any children that may be involved. Divorce is a failure.

            I wish to point out, first, that many Americans, and many Catholics, are divorcing, and then offer a moral judgment in the light of Magisterial teaching.

1. First, let’s crunch some numbers…

            In the Unites States of America, the divorce rate is rather tragic. The The Economist Pocket World in Figures[1] reports on the situation of the World in the year 2000, give or take.  It reports some interesting facts. It’s fun to compare statistics and draw conclusions, for example, how much money we spend on health and how infertile our nation’s women are, and the obvious role of contraception and abortion in all this. Concretely:

• The United States doesn’t rate among the top twenty highest fertility rates,[2] nor among the top forty highest birth rates.[3] I guess we’re too sick, our medicine is too bad, or we are too evil to live up to the family duty of raising children due to contraception and abortion.

• Yet we’re in the top five or six on indices measuring quality of life, standard of living, health spending (then why are our women so sterile?) and other such affairs.[4]

Now let’s look at some statistics regarding marriage, reported in the same place:

• The United States ranks 14 among the nations for highest marriage rates, 8.5 per 1000 inhabitants per year.

• Yet we are NUMBER ONE when it comes to divorce rate: 4.6 for the same ratio. The Americans for Divorce Reform report 4.1 for the same year.[5]

It was reported that there are 62,018,436 23 Catholics in the United states, at least as of1999[6]; “Catholics account for 23 percent of the U.S. population, according to the 1999 edition of the ‘Official Catholic Directory.’ Current membership is 62,018,436”[7]

B.A. Robinson’s study says that 26 % of Catholic divorce.[8] The Barna Group puts it slightly lower at 25%.[9]

In summary, it’s a prolific problem.

2. …Next, let’s consider the moral problem of divorce

            When all Catholics profess marriage until death, it seems like Catholics should have a 0% divorce rate. A whopping 25% or 26%, 4 and some odd per 1000 people per year, is shocking.

            What is even more alarming is the huge amount of suffering, frustration, failure and anger behind all those divorces.

            If the clergy of the Church truly loved their flocks, they’d work their tail ends off to address this problem. And of course the problem needs to be addressed at the roots, and not on just the surface. It makes no sense to address the mere numbers that we are able to measure without addressing first and foremost the causes of why we have such distressing numbers.

            One of the great problems in America, is, of course, the weakness of the Clergy in standing up for Catholic teaching. There are many reasons for this, most especially dissent. But there are other reasons which are more proximately related to the problem of such high divorce numbers, causes which are less remote.

            Among the first of these is a sort of cowardice towards civil society. The Catholic Church has suffered this wimpy, yellow appeasement of the surrounding secular society repeatedly throughout history. One can discuss ancient influences of political leaders in the world of Catholicism, but more recently in history we see the examples of Gallicanism and Josephism. Gallicanism was a sort of low-key apostacy of the French Bishops, as a body, to the political leaders of the day; Josephism was a similar problem in Austria, and got its name from the Emperor Joseph I.

            The analogy of these things to today’s scene is the adoration of the liberal political scenario and the of the power of the media, which huge numbers of our clergy eagerly chase after. These are idols. Along with these idols are also money and legal security.

We see this so frequently: let the politicians or press put the Church in a situation where its money or liability come on the line, and wow do those bishops, priests and clergy hop! Let priest preach heresy, abuse the liturgy even habitually, recommend contraception in the confessional, suppress and insult laity that aspire to faithful obedience and adherence to Rome, and do they hop? They will hop only onto the band wagon.

What does all this have to do with the problem of divorce? In a nutshell: fear of liability and financial retribution keeps clergy supportive of divorce, most especially when annulment cases are at hand.

Let’s say John has a legitimate reason to suppose that his marriage with Linda was invalid. Perhaps they were teens forced by their parents, perhaps he hid a vasectomy from her before they exchanged vows, etc. There’s no way he can apply for an annulment unless he has his divorce. The clergy are afraid of being sued.

Now let’s say Bobby wants an annulment, because he simply can’t stand Melanie any more… whether there are or not any more objective reasons to postulate the cause for annulment. He too must get a divorce before the Church will even honestly try his annulment case.

Add these two cases to the fact that many couples have been actually encouraged to divorce by their parish priests!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, in the section about marriage, the following:

·        The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it “what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”[10]

·        This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses.108 By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God.[11]

More is said under the section on the sixth commandment (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”):[12]

·        Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:

If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.[13]

·        Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

So why do the pastors of the Church invite couples to divorce, if the Catechism says repeatedly that it is “against the natural law” and a “grave disorder”? I suppose some weak pastors hide behind the following:

·        The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law. [14]

If civil divorce remains the only possible way of ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.

This does not apply, because a Catholic annulment in the United States normally carries no weight before the civil courts. The civil duty to respect “certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of inheritance,” still stands before the state until a divorce is granted, and many of these things are further protected by law in various states’ divorce codes after it is granted.

Since an annulment does not jeopardize any of these things, therefore CCC 2383 doesn’t apply. (Maybe in atheist totalitarian states, divorce codes are all that exist, and any case of annulment would have to be done in secret, and you’d have a reason to apply CCC 2383.)

If it doesn’t apply, then there is no justification to tolerate divorce, either as a remedy to “marital problems,” nor as a condition to apply for an annulment. Therefore pastors who encourage divorce encourage couples to engage in matter of mortal sin. All of which reminds me of the words of Jesus, “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” (Mt. 23:33)

Separation is permitted by the Church when certain practical impossibilities appear, as we read:

·         Yet there are some situations in which living together becomes practically impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The spouses do not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to contract a new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be, if possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to help these persons live out their situation in a Christian manner and in fidelity to their marriage bond which remains indissoluble.[15]

One might ask, “What’s the difference? Divorce… separation… it’s a distinction of words, nothing more!”

Not so. Divorce includes a lie, saying there is no marriage, not even a putative marriage.

The clergy do no favor, therefore, to couples by encouraging them to divorce. Not only do they bless them as they lead them into matter of mortal sin, but also they introduce them also into living the lie of divorce – and living a lie can never make a person happy, by the nature of what a lie is and the truth the human heart longs for – and then show the couple the insidious fact that, “The Church will help you… as long as we don’t risk a liability case…”

The result is a lot of broken souls and hardened hearts.

If we love the Church, Christ, souls, marriage, couples, children and families, we have got to do all we can to eliminate Catholic divorce in this country.

I’d love to hear your feedback on this matter, beloved reader; other points of view on this matter could give me plenty of light.