Divorce – The Catholic Church has the Answer
Why does the Catholic Church make no exceptions when it comes to divorce? Does not the Bible say that Christ permitted divorce in case of fornication? (Matthew 19:9).
Matrimony
71 articles from the existing collection.
If two Protestants, married in a Protestant Church, get a divorce, could one of the parties marry a Catholic in the Catholic Church provided he or she becomes a Catholic?
No. The marriage of two Protestants in a Protestant Church is valid before God, and nothing can dissolve that marriage except the death of one of the parties. Divorce does not give even such Protestants the right to marry again whilst both parties are still living. And becoming a Catholic has no effect upon the validity of such …
It is against nature to suggest that Priests are exempt from ordinary temptations.
No one suggests that they are exempt from ordinary temptations. But it is not against nature to rise above these temptations. It is one thing to be tempted; quite another to yield to the temptation. Anybody could avoid sin if never tempted. But the merit and glory of a Christian is to be tempted yet not to give way to the tempta…
You dare to say that no marriage outside the Church is a true marriage, that the Catholic party is living in sin, and that the children are not acceptable in decent society?
You make one mistake. The Catholic Church does not say that the children are not acceptable in decent society. Civil society is regulated by civil law, and a marriage legal in civil law obtains legal effects. Children of such a marriage are legitimate and acceptable in civil society. But whilst the marriage is regarded as legal …
Marriage is a legal status not subject to any law spiritual.
If no law spiritual governs marriage, why did Christ say, “But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another committeth adultery”? Christ was not the civil ruler, and He had said explicitly, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” If marriage belongs solely to civil authority, Christ woul< have…
Birth Control – The Catholic Church has the Answer
Why is the Catholic Church opposed to birth control? Where in the Bible is birth control condemned as being contrary to the Will of God?
Do you say that all large families are sufficiently provided for?
If they were not, that would not justify birth-control. The end does not justify the means. However I do not deny that individual cases of extreme poverty occur where there happens to be large families. But they occur also where there are not large families. I deny however that parents cannot normally support the children which …
How can marriage be a Sacrament?
A Sacrament is a visible rite instituted by Christ for the signifying and giving of grace. Marriage is a visible rite, witnessed by men. It has been elevated by Christ to sacramental dignity. It signifies something very sacred, the union of Christ with His Church, as St. Paul tells us. Eph. V., 22-33. There is but one Christ and…
Many Catholics practice birth-control, as is evident from their small families.
That is not evidence. Only on a man’s own admission could we know that he is not limiting his children by practicing continence, he and his wife agreeing to abstain from marriage rights by mutual consent. But even if it be true that many Catholics sin in this manner, the fact that they sin could not justify the same sin in other…
Which is the lesser of two evils—to bring undernourished children into the world for whom you cannot provide, or to practice contraception?
To bring children into the world and not to be able to provide for them is easily the lesser of the two evils. Better any temporal trials than sin by breaking God’s law. But you have no certainty that you will be unable to provide for the children God sends, or that they will be undernourished. There is such a thing as Divine Pr…
Marriage is a contract between the parties themselves. Why should they have to be married in the Catholic Church?
Marriage is a public as well as a private contract, and society rightly insists upon public conditions for validity. And since marriage is also a Christian Sacrament committed to the care of the Church, the Church reasonably and properly lays down the conditions for the lawful and valid reception of that Sacrament.
You speak of laws adapted to the welfare of the race. But if married men are guilty in violating those laivs, what of single men?
The cases are not parallel. If a man enters that state which God ordains as the essential unit of society for the multiplication of the race, and if within that state he puts into operation those forces God intends to result in children, he is bound to accept the children in a spirit of service primarily to God, and secondarily …
Christ did not institute marriage. It existed long before His advent to this world.
Prior to Christ it existed as a matrimonial contract, but Christ elevated it to the dignity of a Sacrament of the New Law. Christ therefore instituted matrimony as a Sacrament. He blessed marriage by His presence at Cana, and declared its indissolubility when He said, “What God has joined, let not man put asunder.” Henceforth, w…
Christ allowed divorce for one reason. He said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for fornication, maketh her to commit adultery.” Matt. V., 32.
Christ allowed permanent separation if adultery be committed, but He does not allow divorce and re-marriage in the sense you intend. When He said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery, etc.,” the sense He intended was this, “Whosoever shall put away his wife (I am…
Civil law says that the marriage of a Catholic and a Protestant in a Protestant Church is valid. Why don9t you acknowledge the law of the land?
The state holds the marriage to be valid in state law. And all Catholics hold the marriage to be civilly legal. But the state says nothing whatever about God’s view of the matter, and the Catholic Church declares the marriage null and void before God, and therefore in conscience. Even after that declaration, if the parties do no…
The civil law admits divorce and re-marriage.
Civil law and divine law are not always in harmony. Politicians at times exceed their powers and make laws, which are contrary to those of God. Thus they have legislated concerning matrimony with no reference to the will of Christ who raised the marriage contract to the dignity of a Sacrament.
May a Catholic act as best man or bridesmaid at a non-Catholic wedding?
A Catholic may not act as an official witness. A wedding in a church is not a merely social event; it is also a religious ceremony. Though non-Catholics may not see it, the Catholic position is alone logical. Protestants should choose witnesses of their own faith and spare Catholics the pain of having to refuse.
A higher standard of life and education is demanded to-day than in mediaeval times, and one can’t do it with a large family.
That could not justify birth-control by contraceptive methods. The choice to-day is between Christ and the modern pagan philosophy. If modern godless civilization is right, and this life is all, then let us measure everything by utility and pleasure. If Christ is right, and the beatitudes, directed against worldly wisdom, are th…
Why is the Catholic Church opposed to birth-control?
She is not opposed to the controlling of the number of children by lawful means, such as by self-control and by mutual consent to abstain from the use of marital privileges. But she is opposed to birth-control as commonly understood to mean the prevention of conception, after indulgence in actions calculated to result in the gen…
You would be much happier if you were married.
If that were so, will you blame me for denying myself what you admit to b8 a happiness? However supernatural happiness more than compensates me for the loss of that natural happiness. No word of mine could make you think that I am gloomy or miserable. And I am sure that your estimate of me will make you admit that there is at le…
Your arrogance in interfering with the domestic relations of man and wife is astounding!
It would be arrogance did I pretend to be the legislator. But it is not when 1 simply declare what God demands. He, as Creator, has full rights over His creatureSj and the right to make conditions upon which they may use the faculties He gave them, forbidding their use in a way which offends and insults Him.
Marconi secured a divorce and teas re-married in the Catholic Church.
Marconi secured a decree of civil divorce from the state, but from the Catholic Church he secured a decree of nullity. The civil divorce broke no real bond of Church declared that the form of marriage Marconi went through with Miss Beatrice O’Brien on March 16, 1905, was null and void, and that both were really single people mis…
The motive of your Church is to increase her numbers.
Her motive is to obey God. Temporal advantages certainly do follow from the observance of God’s law, but those advantages are not the primary motive of the prohibition of birth-control. The Church cannot wrater down God’s law to suit the passions of men; she must lift men to the observance of God’s law. Whatever timeserving conc…