RELATIONSHIPS AFTER MARITAL BREAKDOWN

Jesus said that the Jews were too stubborn to admit that the divine plan is one man and one woman for life.  He said that it is adultery to divorce.

Many people start new relationships after their marriage breaks down even before they divorce or get an annulment. The Catholic Church says that these are adulterous. They commit the sin of adultery against God and the state. Even before annulment it is still adultery for it is intended to be for only the decree can decide if the marriage never happened. At least if they got a divorce not to dissolve the marriage and to get married again but so that any relationship they have will not be the sin of adultery against the state they will sin less. The Church has to recommend divorce to lessen the evil. This makes all that talk about divorce being bad to be meaningless. They are only against it because God says so and that is all. But we cannot forbid things because of authority. Authority cannot make things right or wrong. The fact remains that Jesus slammed and banned and invalidated all divorces as in a legal certificate of divorce and said this was ungodly implying that God and state are united in authority.
 
William Kasper, a Catholic theologian, suggested that though marriage is indissoluble that divorced couples in second marriages should be allowed to go to the sacraments if they are sorry for their part in the breakup of the first marriage and when they tried their best to save the marriage and when breaking up the second marriage would be unjust to the man and woman and any children of the marriage (page 860, Catholicism).
 
Christianity denies that causing upheaval and upset is necessarily bad or wrong. Jesus caused upset with his teaching and didn't flinch from causing it. The doctrine that marriage cannot be dissolved and that sex outside marriage is bad says that marriage no matter what problems or unhappiness it sometimes causes is necessary for justice and for protecting rights. It follows then that the second marriage being unreal isn't entitled to be respected or kept together.
 
Conclusion
 
To ban divorce is to force misery on most married people. It’s best not to marry at all for marriage infers that divorce is wrong.
 
WORKS CONSULTED

A Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Catholic Truth Society, Westminster, 1985
Believing in God, PJ McGrath, Wolfhound Press, Dublin, 1995
Biblical Dictionary and Concordance of the New American Bible, Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington DC, 1971
Catholicism, Richard P McBrien, HarperSanFrancisco, New York, 1994
Divorce, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, 1946
Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason W Archer, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982
Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven, Uta Ranke Heinmann, Penguin, London, 1991
Hard Sayings, Derek Kidner, Intervarsity Press, 1972
Hard Sayings, FF Bruce, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1984
Moral Philosophy, Joseph Rickaby SJ, Longmans, Green and Co, London, 1912
Moral Questions, Bishops Conference, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1971
New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Preparing for a Mixed Marriage, Irish Episcopal Conference, Veritas, Dublin, 1984
Radio Replies Volume 3, Dr Leslie Rumble MSC, Rev Charles Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul Minnesota, 1942
Rome has Spoken, A Guide to Forgotten Papal Statements and How They Have Changed Through the Centuries, Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben (Editors), Crossroad Publishing, New York, 1998
Shattered Vows, Exodus From the Priesthood, David Rice, Blackstaff Press, Belfast, 1990
Sex & Marriage A Catholic Perspective, John M Hamrogue C SS R, Liguori, Illinois, 1987
The Catholic Church has the Answer, Paul Whitcomb, TAN Publishers, Illinois, 1986
The Emancipation of a Freethinker, Herbert Ellsworth Cory, The Bruce Publishing Company, Milwaukee, 1947
“The Lord Hateth Putting Away!” and Reflections on Marriage and Divorce The Committee of the Christadelphian, Birmingham, 1985
When Critics Ask, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, Victor Books, Illinois ,1992
 
 
The WWW
 
How to Fight the Religious Right, Brian Elroy McKinley
http://elroy.net/ehr/fighttheright.html
 
BIBLE VERSION USED

The Amplified Bible