Catholic Marriage
What Do We Ask
To: the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative TextsIs the policy of the local church - that is to summarily disregard the canon laws about the separation of spouses (1151-1155, 1692-1696) - contrary to the universal law of the church?
Are those who abandon marriage and force divorce deserving of sanctions: medicinal and expiatory penalties, warnings and rebukes, and/or denial of communion?
We ask the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts to issue a pronouncement answering our question.
We find the local church has a policy to make virtually no mention of the canon laws for separation of spouses (1151-1155, 1692-1696). The faithful are commonly taught that the church has no objection to divorce, only remarriage without annulment.
We are taught that the local church shall have no involvement if a spouse forces divorce on one's children and reliable spouse who do not want a divorce. If reliable spouses ask the church to correct, warn, or rebuke our abandoning spouses (c. 49, 1319, 1339) we typically get no help.
When we plea for intervention because our spouses have hired divorce attorneys to abduct our children, which is an offense against human life and freedom (c. 1397), we are told that splitting children between two parents is merely a civil matter, about which the church has no teaching. When our children are forced to live with, or spend overnight visits with an abandoning parent's adulterous partner, the local church is silent.
When we have family property forcibly taken by our abandoning spouses, empowered by civil court, the church looks the other way and we are instructed to return with an annulment petition. When the church is silent as our spouses force us to pay support for a second home where our children live separated from us, observers conclude that the Church sees no moral offense and no injustice against social order. We are taught that the local church has no interest because this is merely a civil matter.
The Catechism states that divorce is plague on society, is immoral and a grave offense against nature, and is only allowable in certain circumstance citing canon law. The Pontifical Council for the Family warns that divorce makes children orphans of living parents. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Arcanum teaches that the matrimonial contract cannot be severed from the sacrament, with intent to hand over the contract to the power and will of the rulers of the State.
Observations by those who study divorce, lead us to conclude that forcing no-fault divorce on one's family is a manifest grave sin, endangering the offender's soul, violating divine law, causing scandal, gravely wounding the reliable spouse and children (c 1399), and harming the common good (attached Baskerville). Our pastors and bishops do not aid with penal remedies, warnings, rebukes, precepts, medicinal penalties, censures, expiatory penalties or denial of communion (c 915).
It appears that following canon 1692, and seeking the local ordinary's permission before approaching the civil divorce court, would save marriages and prevent immoral separation and scandal. Enacting sanctions upon those who force family separations that are contrary to divine law would both prevent scandal and uphold the dignity of children and reliable spouses, by defending their right to an intact home with two parents supporting one household.
Is the policy of the local church - that is to summarily disregard the canon laws about the separation of spouses (1151-1155, 1692-1696) - contrary to the universal law of the church?
Are those who abandon marriage and force divorce deserving of sanctions: medicinal and expiatory penalties, warnings and rebukes, and/or denial of communion?
Seeking Roman Reply
Why We Can Ask
Lay faithful who are interested can ask the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts to determine whether particular (meaning local) law, policy and practice is in conformity with universal law. Custom can become local laws (c 26) They can seek a pronouncement concerning the conformity of a particular norm to the universal laws of the Church, pursuant to art. 158 of the Ap. Const. Pastor Bonus.- Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts
- Art. 154 - The function of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts consists mainly in interpreting the laws of the Church.
- Art. 155 - With regard to the universal laws of the Church, the Council is competent to publish authentic interpretations confirmed by pontifical authority, after consulting the dicasteries concerned in questions of major importance.
- Art. 158 - At the request of those interested, this Council determines whether particular laws and general decrees issued by legislators below the level of the supreme authority are in agreement or not with the universal laws of the Church.
Who is Asking: Testimonies
Faithful spouses whose families are devastated by family break-ups bring our question to the Vatican. Some testimonies of our experiences with the local church are attached (identifying information omitted in public statements below). To illustrate the no-fault divorce process, we included Stephen Baskerville's work "Divorced from Reality."If the Church would exercise the canonical investigation process for Separation of Spouses, canonical remedies, and medicinal penalties, we believe it could safeguard justice, prevent scandal, and serve the common good.
son "abducted" by wife
Priest Assisted Abduction
HUSBAND - My depressed wife spoke to [name omitted] our pastor about our marriage and was sent to a diocesan divorce program that taught her how to divorce without looking back. Her parents, who are active in their parish, helped her take our two-year old son from me with no-fault divorce. Fr. [name omitted] told me that he had no objection to divorce because our marriage was no longer "life-giving." He never mentioned anything about canon law requiring my wife to obtain a church decree before going to civil court. He even wrote a letter calling me "manipulative" because I wanted to repair our marriage. Our son now has Tourette's Syndrome that was stress induced. I have since been diagnosed with MS, exacerbated by stress. I have not been able to find any priest to tell my wife or her parents that she should repair my son's broken home or that there is anything wrong with divorce.
music minister abandons wife, has affair with cantor
Church Silent when Catholic Music Director Abandons Wife
WIFE - My husband abandoned our marriage and child thirteen years ago and has been allowed to keep his Catholic Church position as Organist/Music Director. He left the home after the cantor was hired whom I blame for our marital breakup. The Pastor never encouraged our reconciliation, yet these two have been dating all these years. They enjoy good reputations in the parish and Diocese because of their talents. I wrote the Bishop which has added to the pain and confusion as he wrote back to say that since the Pastor has no proof of inappropriate behavior, they may keep their jobs. Yet the Episcopal Vicar spoke with the Pastor and told me he aware that they date. Dating while divorced is beingÊignored by the Church.
wife destroys family with no objection from pastor
Priest Plants Seed of Annulment Idea so Wife Abandons Marriage
HUSBAND - We have four young daughters and my wife divorced me in 2008. She had met with Fr. [name omitted], pastor of [name omitted] Parish. Prior to even speaking with me, he told her that people in her situation have obtained annulments. Instead of speaking to her of the pain and damage to our children that divorce would bring, and of the grave sinfulness of such a decision, his mention of annulment served as a catalyst for my wife to abandon our marriage. When [Father] learned that my wife was involved with another married man, I asked him to explain to my wife the Catholic teaching on marriage. Instead, our pastor told me I needed to accept that I was going to be divorced. He spoke of psychology and five stages of grief, intimating our marriage was dead, rather than of reconciliation, hope, and asking God for the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony. I am unaware of any attempts to urge my wife to reconcile or speak of her obligation to obtain the bishop's permission before divorcing. My wife professes to be a devout Catholic, wears a chapel veil to Mass, and continues to receive Communion as if she has done no wrong.
future religion teacher abducts daughter with guidance from priest
Devout Catholic Wife Loots Home
HUSBAND - While I was providing for my family, my devout wife and her father abducted our 3-month old child and looted my house. I loved my wife, was not abusive and did not commit adultery. My wife justifies her actions on the basis that our marriage was invalid. The priest who married us one year earlier, Fr. [name omitted] archdiocese [name omitted], had sat on the annulment tribunal. He provided her with the grounds of annulment. She refused marital counseling and has devastated me emotionally, spiritually and financially. The money she took as spousal support she plans to use to complete her Masters Degree in Catholic Theology at [name omitted] College so she can teach religion. She remains a respected member of the parish where we married and sits in the front pew and goes to Communion.
