Posted on 10/04/2014 7:52:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Traditionally, social conservatism has enjoyed the support of Catholicism, whose body of teaching on morals is a mother lode of ideas and arguments that retain much of their force even apart from their theological context. Rumors that the Church is poised to relax its position on the indissolubility of marriage are therefore troubling or encouraging, depending on which side you stand in the culture war.
Tomorrow, a synod of bishops will convene in Rome to discuss the family. It’s a big topic, but what has developed as the headline item on the agenda is a question that on its face is technical and narrow: Should divorce and remarriage when the first spouse is still living continue to prevent a Catholic from receiving Communion? How the question is answered will directly affect only a sliver of the Catholic faithful, but its ramifications will eventually touch everyone, Catholics first and then, as the news sinks in, the culture at large.
The Church holds that husband and wife remain married to each other until death. In civil law, they may be divorced, but in the eyes of the Church they are not, so that for either spouse to enter into a new marriage would be adultery, a grave matter standing between that person’s soul and the Eucharist, the source and summit of Christian life.
A move to soften that impediment to the reception of Holy Communion is being led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, bishop emeritus of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. Pope Francis has warmly praised his approach to the issue. You can keep the rule on the books, Kasper argues. But mercy dictates that pastors should have freedom to stretch it at their discretion. The question is pastoral, we hear repeatedly.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
RE: So He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.
1) What happens if one party initiates a divorce against the other party’s wishes and INSISTS that he/she wants to leave?
2) What should a wife do if her life is in danger due to spousal physical abuse?
FWIW, when my Catholic-raised and educated father heard this, his terse comment was: "well, things have changed". He was glad that his niece's daughter was able to get out of a bad marriage.
Did she get an annulment, or just re-marry in one of the state “churches”?
There are loopholes that allow people to turn divorces into annulments (”immaturity” is a good catch-all), but nobody is fooling God.
I don’t think there was an annulment. She has remarried and has another child with this man. They have been married for many years. I don’t know what kind of ceremony it was, as I live quite far away from my family at this point in my life, so I did not attend her second wedding.
Things HAVEN'T changed.
NO spouse has to tolerate abuse. THAT breaks the vows that the abusing spouse took --"love, honor" one's spouse. So where there is any kind of abuse, there is no valid marriage.
Broken vows annul the process and no valid marriage took place because of the one spouse's behaviors.
It's fairly simple but the process is long. There are usually two clergy and two lay people in the decision-making process. Things are usually pretty obvious.
I see; without the annulment the second wedding wouldn’t have been a Catholic one - if the first one was.
It isn’t the price I’m bitching about, I just think the whole thing is hypocrisy. People make mistakes in their relationships, so should they be penalized for their entire lives?
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