A good many other Catholics leave and join other churches if a spouse divorces them and they wish to remarry. The Catholic Church does not recognize divorce under ANY circumstances. They have a process called annulments where they construct a legal fiction that your marriage never really existed due to one of a handful of esoteric reasons. You cannot remarry and continue to receive Communion unless your marriage is annulled.
It can be a humiliating process, and many people just refuse to go along with the lie that their marriage never existed. So they leave. Generally when they remarry and get to their new churches they TITHE, which is driving the Vatican nuts. It has sparked a very intense debate about modifying the Church’s stand on this issue.
I agree that is one issue that is a significant variable in explaining former Catholics, probably the most significant one. Most of my relatives who are no longer Catholic all had marriages in the Catholic Church that ended and when they remarried they went Protestant.
“The Catholic Church does not recognize divorce under ANY circumstances.“
That is not true. It is a silly statement
a certain Henry Tudor has this problem. his solution was his own church.
People don't understand the Catholic faith so they create fictions that they try and use to diminish it.