Expert: Tom Schott - 9/15/2006

Question
Hi. What is the Church's position on divorce/annulment? I guess I'm really wondering about so-called "hard cases", such as when one spouse commits adultery, is physically abusive, is a drug addict or drunkard, becomes a homosexual, gets a sex-change operation, abandons the Faith, etc.

Answer
Johann,

  "Divorce," per se, is not allowed in the Catholic Church. That is, the Church does not recognize a civil divorce alone without an official annulment by a diocesan tribunal. But the annulment process is available to address those marriages that are invalid, i.e., non-sacramental. To be a sacramental marriage, the union must be Christ-centered. Many of the reasons you cite would be sufficient grounds to annul the marriage. Each and every case is handled separately, so it is difficult to generalize other than to say that the Church recognizes many reasons to grant Catholics an annulment of their marriages, and the annulment process is in place to discern those reasons.

  I trust this has been helpful.

Pax Christi,
Deacon Tom