ON INDISSOLUBILITY AND DIVORCE

For the benefit of readers who may have lately been confused about the Catholic Church's teaching on the indissolubility of marriage and about divorce, I would like to quote extensively and verbatim from an address of Pope John Paul II to the officials of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota on Monday, 28 January, 2002  (official translation).

For complete text of Pope's message to Sacra Rota, click here ... ð

* I want to examine indissolubility (of marriage) as a good for spouses, for children, for the Church and for the whole of humanity.

* A positive presentation of the indissoluble union is important, in order to rediscover its goodness and beauty. First of all, one must overcome the view of indissolubility as a restriction of the freedom of the contracting parties, and so as a burden that at times can become unbearable. Indissolubility, in this conception, is seen as a law that is extrinsic to marriage, as an 'imposition' of a norm against the 'legitimate' expectations of the further fulfilment of the person. Add to this the widespread notion that indissoluble  marriage is only for believers, who cannot try to 'impose' it on the rest of civil society.

* It is the natural dimension of the union and, more concretely, the nature of man created by God himself that provides  the indispensable key for interpreting the essential properties of marriage. The further reinforcement that the properties obtain by virtue of the sacrament, is based on a foundation of natural law that, if removed, would make incomprehensible

the very work of salvation and elevation of the conjugal reality that Christ effected once and for all.

* To treat indissolubility not as a natural juridical norm but as a mere ideal, empties of meaning the unequivocal declaration of Jesus Christ, who absolutely refused divorce because 'from the beginning it was not so" (Mt 19, 8 ).

* One cannot give in to the divorce mentality: confidence in the natural and supernatural gifts of God to man prevents that.

* It could perhaps seem that divorce is so firmly rooted in certain social sectors, that it is almost not worth continuing to combat it, by spreading a mentality, a social custom and a civil legislation in favour of the indissolubility of marriage. Yet it is indeed worth the effort! Actually this good is at the root of all society, as a necessary condition for the existence of the family. Its absence therefore has devastating consequences that spread through the social body like a plague - to use the term of the Second Vatican Council to describe divorce (Gaudium et Spes n.47) - and that have a negative influence on the new generations who view as tarnished the beauty of true marriage.

* The value of indissolubility cannot be held to be just the object of a private choice: it concerns one of the cornerstones of all society.... One must avoid the risk of permissiveness on fundamental issues concerning the nature of marriage and of the family.