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Lesson 9

Church Teaching on Divorce

The Church understands marriage to be a covenant that remains binging on the spouses even if they feel the relationship has become difficult or unbearable. It is for this reason the Church believes marriage is an indissoluble union and does not recognize divorce.

Catechism Connections

Lesson Topics
Ten Commandments The Church
Essential Lessons
Lesson Vocabulary

  • Divorce
    :
    (n.): The claim that the indissoluble marriage bond validly entered into between a man and a woman is broken. A civil dissolution of the marriage contract, however, does not free persons from their commitment to each other before God, so re- marriage after divorce is not possible.
  • Legal Separation
    :
    (n.): A court-ordered arrangement where a couple remain legally married but live apart.
  • Civil Divorce
    :
    (n.): A government-recognized dissolution of a civil marriage.
  • Annulment
    :
    (n.): A declaration by a Church tribunal (a Catholic Church court) that a Marriage thought to be valid according to Church law actually fell short of at least one of the essential elements required for a binding union. Rather than dissolving a Marriage that already exists, by this declaration of nullity, the Church formally recognizes that a valid Marriage was never entered into in the first place.
  • Civil Marriage
    :
    (n.): A government-recognized marriage. A government’s recognition of marriage protects an institution that predates any civil government: the family.
  • Indissoluble
    :
    (adj.): Permanent; unable to be destroyed.
  • Consanguinity
    :
    (n.): The fact of being descended from the same ancestor, which in the Catholic Church is an impediment to marriage when the relation is close. From the Latin con, or “common,” and sanguis, or “blood.”
  • Pauline Privilege
    :
    (n.): The Church’s willingness to permit a baptized person to remarry after the dissolution of a natural but non-sacramental bond in the circumstance where the original non- sacramental marriage was entered between two non-baptized persons, and later, one spouse was baptized and then abandoned by the non- baptized spouse. This exception is based on St. Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7:12–16.
  • Irregular Union
    :
    (n.): A term describing a couple living as spouses despite an existing obstacle to marriage — for example, one partner in a civil marriage is sacramentally married to another person.

    • Plan

    Chapter Powerpoint
    pptx
    Vocabulary Review
    pdf
    Vocabulary Review Answer Key
    pdf

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    Wedding Toast Poem

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