Divorce and despair
If Anger is the father of all sins, surely Despair is their mother. Despair implies the idea that there is no solution to a problem, that not even God can help you out of your predicament. It cuts you off from God as surely, if not more, than excommunication, for that is the declaration of an institution, not a position taken by an individual who decides he wants to cut himself off from God. The desperate do not pray: they go mad or commit suicide.
If this is so, then telling a person that he or she has to persist in living a hell with his or her spouse when their marriage fails is condemning the person to despair, unless the person has exceptional spiritual powers which endow him or her to regard such a tribulation as the earning of a greater reward in the after-life; but how many are so endowed? Most people would simply despair, and would be put on the horns of a dilemma, having to choose between membership of a faith or a relief from intolerable stress.
Threatening to cut people away from the Church because they seek divorce is merely one side of the coin of perdition: tell them they cannot divorce and they will despair (and they will go to hell). Telling them to divorce if they will but they shall never go to heaven is the other side.
Both roads lead to what the Church defines as “hell”. Simple logic will tell you that the person who refuses to divorce even though he or she is suffering the pains of hell on earth shall despair and got to another hell later, and that’s two hells. I wonder what the theologians have to say about the Church exposing people to despair.
The Church must be wary of exasperating souls, and so lose them, but that is a Vatican, not a local, problem.
The Archbishop’s hands, like ours, are bound. A parting shot: the only unforgivable sin, I was taught, is suicide, because it is a wilful distancing of oneself from God’s mercy, so if I am right it transcends any other sin. Who would want to push a soul into that, out of “principle”? Who will shoulder that responsibility?
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Mr Alfred Hili
Apr 30th 2011, 11:05
The church is not against separation. It does not tell anyone "to persist in living a hell with his or her spouse when their marriage fails". It is only against remarriage when no annulment is given by the church itself.
Ms Sabrina Borda
May 1st 2011, 07:58
You use the word "only" when it comes to showing how the Church is "ONLY against remarriage when no annulment is given by the church itself". That "only" is hell enough.
Mr carlo mihalic
May 1st 2011, 10:13
Mr Alfred Hili .
Dont understand how annulment is ok but divorce is not think they are both the same thing God help the poor the catholic church only helps the rich with annulment to have a new life
Mr Joe Zammit
Apr 30th 2011, 10:30
Christ was clear also on the evil of adultery and said that, if one divorces his spouse and enters another marriage, one lives in adultery. (Mk 10, 2-12; Mt 19, 2-9). In the first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul says: “Do not be deceived; neither … nor adulterers… will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor.6, 9-10).
Divorce is a grave sin. Par. 1789 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church runs: “… One may never do evil so that good may result from it; …”
On July 13, 1917 the Virgin Mary told the three children of Fatima that “many go to hell on account of the sins of the flesh”. Among the sins of the flesh there is adultery. Padre Pio had regular mystical contacts with God, saints, angels and devils, and used to say that "divorce is a passport to hell". He knew what he was saying and no one could belie him. It is not a joke to go to hell … and to hell for ever!
Divorce leads to hell because it transgresses God’s categorical law on marriage, namely indissolubility. Divorce purports to do what it cannot do, namely to dissolve a validly contracted marriage.
Let no one try to deceive God by planning to live in sin and die in grace. Such a plan will be the devil’s snare. You die as you live!
Mr Joe Zammit
Apr 30th 2011, 10:29
Par.2384 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Divorce is a grave offence against the natural law…. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery: …”.
‘A grave offence against natural law’ means a grave sin against God who is the author of natural law. So, divorce is a grave sin. Adultery is a grave offence against God as well since it transgresses seriously the Sixth Commandment of God. Adultery denotes sexual acts by married persons outside a valid marriage, i.e. outside a marriage that is valid before God.
Christ spoke clearly of the evil of divorce: “What God has joined together let no man put asunder”. ‘Let no man put asunder’ means ‘let no-one resort to divorce’. This is a command not an advice and it is so serious a command that amounts to a grave sin if it is ignored. Moreover, the fact that it is expressed in the negative clearly shows that it admits of no exception. The Catholic Church, as the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, has never resorted to divorce in her 2000-year-old history.
Mr Joseph Calleja
Apr 30th 2011, 16:50
"Church of Christ, has never resorted to divorce in her 2000-year-old history." But it has resorted to ANNULMENT. Annulments is a self made law by the church for rich Catholics. Where does it say that it is OK for a marriage to be dissolved with an annulment? The reason annulment is not mentioned in any bible or by Christ is because the church made that up to accommodate certain elite people in their marital troubles. Yes Mr Z, seems like everybody tries to protect their own. If the church and yourself condone annulment, then you are obligated to condone divorce. What is good for the goose is good for the Gander. Why is it that a pedophile priest can get away with it but not any other human being? I am strictly talking about Malta of course.
Mr Charles Caruana Carabez
Apr 30th 2011, 17:22
Dear Messrs Zammit and Hili, one should not speak of divorce and adultery as if one is the inevitable result of the other. There are quite a few people I know who, having burned their fingers once, will have nothing to do with marriage again, but just want to revert to their original status. I was amused to read, in another letter to-day, about the evils of separation. It is not that I had forgotten about that limbo-like state, but rather that I had taken it for granted that at present few would regard it as a solution in any sense. I hope you remember the recent 'bull-dozer' case. If separation were a solution there would not be the present debate about divorce. Perhaps the Church should have devoted more of its energy in making separation more acceptable, I don't know. But please do not drag in adultery. As it is, marriage can turn out to be the irrevocable error which -yes- may lead to despair on account of its irrevocability.
Mr Giov DeMartino
Apr 30th 2011, 18:25
@Joseph Calleja. Before you answer, if you decide to answer, look up the word annul in a dictionary.
Mr Joseph Calleja
May 1st 2011, 05:40
I am looking at Webster;s new dictionary at the word Annul...
Annul' reduce to nothing, abolish.
What is your point exactly? Annulment by the church means just that. I never argued the point. The point is that annulment goes a bit further than a divorce because as the dictionary says, annulment reduces a marriage to nothing, it abolishes a marriage to nothing. Isn't that far worse than divorce?
Mr carlo mihalic
May 1st 2011, 10:32
Mr Zammit what is your problem no one telling you to get divorce or maybe we should ask your wife,also but i no it will be hard for you to understand we are not all catholic and we dont all belive in God we all have rights in a free Malta .
Tell me one thing Mr Zimmit why you never talk about annulment is it not the same like Divorce a sin people who get annulment dont go to hell.
Ok understand the catholic church is making money out of annulments.
RIGHTS FOR ALL NOT JUST THE RICH
Mr Giov DeMartino
May 1st 2011, 11:03
@ Mr Calleja. That is only half the truth. Annul means declare invalid. THAT is the difference bet. annulment and divorce. When a marriage is annulled it simply means that for some reason or other that marriage had never existed. For ex if my wife finds out that I was already married before I married her, this second "marriage" could not take place. It will be declared invalid and my wife was never really married bec she could not marry a legally married man. Divorce is completely different.
Please choose the reason of your report below: