In light of the recent supreme court case decision, Obergfell vs. Hodges, it seems necessary to make a clarification about a Catholic Church teaching that some are unsure about. It should come as no surprise that the supreme court case’s redefinition of marriage changes nothing for the Catholic Church. The Church did not make marriage to begin with and could not change it if it wanted to. That being said, I’ve heard from many that just like divorce, the Church should look away and “accept” same sex marriage.
The truth is that while there are likely many divorced people who participate fully in the Church, Catholic doctrine on the matter is consistent with what it has always been. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death… Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery (1650).” In the words of a layman, this means that the graces given to a married couple and the promises that they make are forever. Because it is a covenant between the married couple and God, the couple could not “un-marry” themselves if they want to, and neither can the Church. The only way that a couple could ever “un-marry” would be through the long process of an annulment, in which they prove that they were never actually married to begin with. That’s it. The Church has never changed its position on marriage to accommodate the faint of heart. The truth is that it cannot do so because it did not create marriage. So while there are many divorced and remarried couples who participate in the Church, doctrine has never changed.
A divorced person, unless they have been given an annulment, cannot get remarried in the Catholic Church (because, as long as their spouse is still living, they’re still technically married), and will never be able to, regardless of what state law allows. The point of this is that marriage is a beautiful lifelong commitment, it shows us the relationship between Christ and His Church, and people did not create it so they do not have the power to redefine it. We absolutely love and accept our divorced and remarried brothers and sisters and we trust that the Lord is incredibly merciful to us all. That being said, we cannot change the truth for anyone.
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