Situations With Divorce

Some people feel that if a person has been married but is now divorced, he or she is now free to date. Now divorce is a legal paper stating you are no longer legally married to another, according to the states opinion. However, according to the Church, in the eyes of God, what really should matter is that there can be no true divorce if two parties are lawfully married. Let me quote Jesus' own words from the New Testament in the writings of Mark:" Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her." Jesus does not take "divorce" lightly, and this advice for all to hear and follow, including our present times. So if you happen to befriend a divorced person, she or he is unavailable and they should not be pursued if the former spouse is alive or the marriage has been proven valid by the church. One needs to remember that even if the person you might be interested in no longer lives with his or her spouse or whether the state believes the marriage is still legal or not, one cannot just date him or her anyway. In the eyes of God, a person married is a person married til death of one of the parties. Only the church can decide that a marriage was not actually valid when it occurred, after careful study.

Some people think divorce is the same as annulment. Well, the state does not annul; the church does. Annulment can take a very long time.The church does undertake a timed process to look into a wedding that took place and determine if it was actually valid or not. In other words, they consider whether a valid marriage actually took place at all. The Catholic Church cannot dissolve a marriage but can determine that a marriage in the eyes of God actually did not take place and no marriage binding truly existed in the first place with the evidence put  in front of them. (I will go into more details next week about grounds for annulment.)

Finally, it would be ideal to find someone without a prior or recent attachment, rather than going through the pain of having to refuse to go out with a person due to their previous marriage or attachments.