4 ms·

> My wife and I decided, before we got married, that divorce was off the table for us. Well, you can decide whatever you want before you get married. People ch

• User23 6y ago
  Catholics believe that marriage ends only with death. While obviously a civil divorce is possible, the actual sacramental marriage is indissoluble. One of the consequences of this belief is that Catholic couples are considerably less likely to get a civil divorce than other Christians or atheists[1]. [1] https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholics-continue-to-have-lowest-divorce-rates-report-finds https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/catholics-continue-t...
  • nogabebop23 6y ago
    Does this mean to get a true divorce you need to choose between your terrible current situation and your faith? That's a tough position.
  • vkou 6y ago
    Except that Catholics also practice annulment, which is, for all intents and purposes, a divorce (That you carry out through the church, as opposed to secular courts.) Instead of breaking up a marriage, they claim, post-facto, that it was not a 'true[1] marriage', and is, therefore, invalid in the eyes of God and men. This is a loophole big enough to drive a bus through, and is practiced quite frequently. [1] The technical term is sacramented.
    • User23 6y ago
      Any number of factors can cause an attempted marriage to fail. Impaired consent is one major one. Unwillingness to have children is another. Even entering marriage with the expectation that divorce is possible means no sacramental marriage was formed. I suppose one can choose to view those factors as loopholes and I imagine some poorly formed Catholics do just that. That said, a validly celebrated marriage cannot be annulled. Whether or not tribunals are erroneously issuing declarations of nullity is a question I don’t know the answer to. In any event a Catholic who tries to game the system this way would be well advised to consider that God won’t be fooled.