Divortium

Amici, Americanae et Compatriotae,

INTRODUCTION

There has been much discussion about the heretical teaching of Pope Francis in paragraph 305 and footnote 351 within Amoris Laetitia that divorce and remarried people may receive Holy Communion. Such an interpretation is given in the Buenos Aires bishops’ guidelines on Amoris Laetitia: full text. Pope Francis has order that those guidelines be added to the Acta Apostolicae Sedis as part of his official magisterium. Thus, the matter of this issue escalates to the point of schism - deciding whether we follow Pope Francis or we follow the plain words of Christ at the beginning of Matthew chapter 19: what God has joined together, let no man cast asunder. Divorce obviously violates that command and breaks the marriage vow. Those who re-marry another afterwards commit adultery (a violation of Exodus chapter 20:14 and Deuteronomy 5:18 within the Ten Commandments) which is a mortal sin (a sin which leads to death – 1st John 5:16). Concerning the problem of partaking of the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion) while in a state of unrepentant mortal sin (e.g., a state of adultery), 1st Corinthians 11:27-32 states:

“Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we should not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are chastened so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”

Therefore, a divorced person who remarries another and then presents himself (or herself) for Holy Communion invokes on himself (or herself) the judgement which St. Paul describes at the end of chapter 11 within his first letter to the Church at Corinth.

That all said, there are TWO and ONLY TWO exceptions to this. These are described below.

DIVORCE FOR ILLICIT SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

Matthew 19:3-9 states:

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one’? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”

The exception that Jesus gives for allowing divorce is in verse 9:

“….whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery….”

The Greek states:

“…ος αν απολυση την γυναικα αυτου ει μη επι πορνεια και γαμηση αλλην μοιχαται…”

The Latin states:

“….quicumque dimiserit uxorem suam nisi ob fornicationem et aliam duxerit moechatur…..”

The English word translated as “unchastity in the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (RSVCE) is πορνεια in Greek and fornicationem in Latin. Πορνεια means:

1. illicit sexual intercourse
a. adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.
b. sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18
c. sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11,12
2. metaph. the worship of idols, of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols

Fornicatio (the nominative case of the accusative used in the Scripture verse) means:

Fornication, (unmarried) sex; prostitution/whoredom

Thus, from the plain words of Christ, divorce for the reason of illicit sexual intercourse (of any kind) is permissible.

DIVORCE FOR DESIRE OF UNBELIEVING SPOUSE TO DEPART

1st Corinthians 7:10- 15 states:

“To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband)—and that the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace.”

Note the phrase in verse 15:

“But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound.”

Therefore, divorce in the case of the desire of the unbelieving spouse to depart is permissible and the believing spouse is NOT bound.

CONCLUSION

Normally, in order to rightly present themselves to Holy Communion a man and a woman in a second marriage must live as brother and sister as Pope John Paul II describes in section 84 of Familiaris Consortio:

“However, the Church reaffirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's teaching about the indissolubility of marriage.”

“Reconciliation in the sacrament of Penance which would open the way to the Eucharist, can only be granted to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. This means, in practice, that when, for serious reasons, such as for example the children's upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.’”

Nevertheless, based on the plain language of Sacred Scripture, one is NOT bound to marriage in two and only two cases:

1. One spouse has engaged in illicit sexual intercourse, OR
2. One spouse, being an unbeliever, desires to separate.