Expert: Marco - 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
Dear Johann,

the Catholic Church teaches that marriage is indissoluble and that divorce is never admitted, as Jesus Himself clearly teaches in the Gospels.

Mark
10:2 And the Pharisees came to him, and tested him, asking, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
10:3 And he answered and said to them, What did Moses command you?
10:4 And they said, Moses allowed a man to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away.
10:5 Jesus answered and said to them, Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.
10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
10:7 For this reason shall a man leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife;
10:8 And the two shall be one flesh: so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.
10:9 Therefore, what God has joined together, let man not separate.
10:10 And in the house his disciples asked him again about the matter.
10:11 And he said to them, Whoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, commits adultery against her.
10:12 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she commits adultery.

Of course it is possible for a spounse to choose separation in the "hard cases". However the spounce cannot marry someone else, because he/she would commit adultery; the bond of marriage always remains also during separation.

The case of annulment is radically different; annulment refers to the case the marriage is declared invalid.
An example is the lacking of freedom.
The consent to the marriage must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, free of coercion or grave external fear.If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid.

I am not expert in matter of annulment; you can try with some other experts.

Your brother in Christ,

Marco

PS I think that faith cannot come only from logic, because to have faith in God means to trust and love God.
I think however that logics and science prove the existence of our soul and the existence of  God and that there are many rational arguments strongly supporting the christian faith.
The explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.

I hope this may help,

please ask again if you should need some clarifications,

Your brother in Christ,

Marco