Archbishop of Sydney

Marriage, not divorce

By + George Pell
ARCHBISHOP OF SYDNEY
10 February 2002

Nearly everyone also knows that nearly half Australian marriages and many Catholic marriages end in divorce. There are other countries where the situation of marriage and families is worse. These marriage breakdowns cause great suffering to those involved and also to the children. Even the financial costs which accompany the consequences of divorce are enormous for governments.

On January 28th in Rome Pope John Paul II gave a long technical address to lawyers on the problem of marriage breakdown. He said that divorce has become like a plague in society and life-long marriage risks becoming the exception to the rule.

Recently a friend told me of his son, in his twenties, having a beer with his mates. It emerged that he was the only one whose parents had not divorced and he was quizzed on what it was like to belong to an intact family!

The Pope acknowledged that some claim that the situation is so bad that there is no longer any point in teaching the indissolubility of marriage. He rejected this.

The indissolubility of marriage is not a burden, not an imposition to be borne only by strict Christians, not an old fashioned restriction on personal liberty, but a protection, something that provides security for the spouses and children. It comes at a cost, but brings great rewards.

Marriage is not just while love lasts, but in sickness and health, for richer or poorer, until death does the parting. It is more than an impossible ideal, to be achieved only by a few. It is a rule of life followed successfully by billions of couples.

The Pope opposed the idea that de factos or homosexual unions should be given equal status to life-long marriages.

All this is predictable and traditional Catholic doctrine, based on the teachings of Christ as found in the gospels. There was controversy however in Italy, and even in London and New York, as well as Australia where some newspaper reports claimed that there was a blanket prohibition by the Pope on Catholic lawyers taking any part in civil divorce proceedings.

This was an exaggeration and a misunderstanding, which was partly caused by a clumsy and somewhat misleading English translation of a precise, technical Italian passage, and by some journalists' enthusiasm for the unexpected, for a scandal.

For Catholics divorce is not a good thing in itself. However lawyers often have to help tidy up the consequences of human weakness, and Catholic judges and lawyers can participate in divorce proceedings to help ensure the legal rights of all participants, such as the care of children through payment of maintenance and access rights, as well as the protection of inheritances and distribution of property. The Pope insisted too that courts and lawyers should work for reconciliation where this is possible, and this is in the civil courts' charters here in Australia.

In the Catholic Church, through church tribunals, it is possible to obtain an annulment, a declaration that a marriage never truly existed. The grounds for this are limited e.g. A refusal to have any children, but this possibility is not offered just for the rich and famous.

While only a minority of cases qualify, all Catholics caught up in marriage breakdown are free to apply and the costs are minimal.

a civil divorce is necessary before an annulment case can commence.