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Micheal G. Lawler, Director Center for Marriage and Family, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska The Book of Marriage, edited by Dana Mack and David Blankenhorn (Eerdmans 2001) does not present Catholic teaching accurately. That is true in two places, namely, on sacrament (p. 66) and on divorce (p. 483). The Catholic Church does not ``forbid" divorce. It energetically discourages it, but does not forbid it. What it forbids is remarriage after a civil divorce without first obtaining an annulment. Catholics who are civilly divorced incur no canonical penalty; they do incur penalty if they attempt to remarry without first getting an annulment of their first ``marriage." Canon Law is clear: ``A ratified (read ``sacramental") and consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death" (Can 1141). Therefore, only the marriage that is simultaneously sacramental and consummated is regarded as indissoluble by the Catholic Church. There are 5 situations in Canon Law which envision this requirement as not met and in which, therefore, the Catholic Church dissolves marriages it accepts as valid. The dissolution of a valid marriage in plain English is, of course, called divorce, though the Church chooses to call it simply a dissolution. The five circumstances are: 1. The marriage is not sacramental, in which case it is dissolved following what is called the Pauline Privilege (Can 1143); 2. The marriage has not been consummated by sexual intercourse (Can 1142); 3. A polygamous man, converted to Catholicism, may choose which of his wives he wants to keep if he cannot remember which wife he married first; in the eyes of the Catholic Church, of course, the wife he married first is his only valid wife, and that first, valid marriage has to be dissolved to permit him his choice of wife (Pope Paul III, Altitudo, 1537); 4. A variation on no.3. The polygamous man may keep as his valid wife that one of his wives who is willing to be baptized with him (Pope Pius V, Romani Pontificis, 1561); 5. A variation on no.1. In the case of a husband and wife separated by slavery, both can remarry validly in the Church after baptism (Pope Gregory XIII, Populis ac Nationibus, 1585). Nos.1-4 continue to be regularly in use today; no.5, one hopes, is now an historical memory, but it was used in history when families were being ravaged by slave traders. Annulment vs. Divorce I hope this is enough to show that the Catholic position on the dissolution of a valid marriage (divorce) is far from the popular wisdom about it. One last important comment. None of the five canonical processes listed above should be confused with that other canonical process called annulment, ignorantly dubbed by the media, ``the Catholic divorce." Nothing could be further from the truth. A divorce, or a dissolution in Catholic terms, dissolves a marriage which is held to be valid in all respects. Annulment declares that, in a particular case, due to some legal defect, there never was at any time a valid marriage between this couple. In many cases, the defect has to do with the free consent required for a marriage to be valid in the Catholic Church. For a ``marriage" in which one or other of the contractants is coerced, for instance, and the freedom of consent, therefore, seriously interfered with, there would be no valid marriage and, therefore, no need for any dissolution. A declaration of annulment, however, could be given in this case, one year or twenty years after the attempted ceremony. I cannot rehearse here all the possible reasons for which an annulment can be given. Marriage is a Sacrament Since the sacramentality of a marriage is one of the reasons leading to its absolute indissolubility, it is necessary to know what it means that a marriage is a sacrament. A symbol is a fundamental representation in which one reality renders another present; a sacrament is a religious symbol, a symbol of the presence of God (code-worded as grace) in the world. As a traditional Catholic definition states it: a sacrament is an outward sign of inner grace. The prophet Jeremiah acted out a prophetic symbol by dashing a clay pot to the ground and proclaiming ``so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter's vessel" (19:11). The prophet Ezekiel acted out a prophetic symbol by drawing a city upon a brick, laying siege to the city, declaring it ``even Jerusalem" (4:1), and presenting his action as ``a sign for the house of Israel" (4:3). The prophet Hosea portrayed marriage, the union of a man and a woman, as a prophetic symbol of the covenant between God and Israel. The Letter to the Ephesians followed this Jewish direction in the first century CE and declared the marriage between Christian believers a prophetic symbol of the new covenant between Christ and Christ's church (5:32), and the Catholic Church continues to follow this direction in the twenty-first century. In the eyes of the Church, marriage has a threefold dimension; it is a natural institution, open to all men and women for the purpose of procreation and mutual help; it is a legal institution, subject to all the laws of society; and it is also a religious institution, for those with faith a prophetic symbol, a sacrament, a symbol of the presence of God and God's Christ in the world. A sacrament, then, is a prophetic symbol in which Christian believers symbolize in representation the presence of God. To say that marriage is a sacrament is to say two things: first, it proclaims the intimate union of a man and a woman and, second, that in and through this most natural of interpersonal unions it proclaims also the intimate union between Christ and Christ's church. Any couple marrying, one hopes, proclaims mutually ``I love you and I give myself to and for you." Any couple wishing their marriage to be sacrament proclaims that too, but also more. They proclaim ``I love you as God loves God's people and as Christ loves Christ's church, steadfastly and faithfully." Marriage as sacrament is intentionally more than natural covenant and legal contract, it is also religious sacrament. It is more than nature and law, it is also grace in its most ancient Christian meaning, namely, the loving presence and action of God. Human marriage, with all that it involves of mutuality, love, service, forgiveness, reconciliation, compassion, has equal religious significance in both its Anglican and Roman Catholic contexts; it symbolizes the presence of God and God's Christ to both the couple and the world in which they live. One brief final comment. Under what condition(s) is a marriage sacramental? The present Canon Law prescribes only one, namely, baptism (Can 1055,2). A broadening stream of Catholic theology finds that requirement too minimal and mechanical and argues that not only baptism but active Christian faith is required to transform natural and legal institution into also Christian sacrament. That debate will go on for some time yet.
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