8. THE QUESTION WAS: Whose soul bears the
guilt of adultery?
A. A married woman
who cheats with a single man
B. A single woman
who cheats with a married man
C. A person who
marries a divorced person whose marriage vows were valid (no annulment)
D. A person who
desires and is more than willing to, or who makes an effort to, cheat on their
spouse but never gets the chance
E. All of the
above.
THE ANSWER IS
..E
.All of the above. Our
sinfulness is in our heart.
Just as a person who accidentally kills someone who runs in front of their car is NOT guilty before God, a person who tries to run someone over but fails IS guilty before God.
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THE
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
Adultery
2380 Adultery refers to
marital infidelity. When two partners, of whom at least one is married to
another party, have sexual relations - even transient ones - they commit
adultery. Christ condemns even adultery of mere desire.171 The sixth
commandment and the New Testament forbid adultery absolutely.172 The
prophets denounce the gravity of adultery; they see it as an image of the sin
of idolatry.173
2381 Adultery is an injustice. He
who commits adultery fails in his commitment. He does injury to the sign of the
covenant which the marriage bond is, transgresses the rights of the other
spouse, and undermines the institution of marriage by breaking the contract on
which it is based. He compromises the good of human generation and the welfare
of children who need their parents' stable union.
ARTICLE 6
THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT
You shall not commit
adultery.113
You have heard that it was said, "You shall
not commit adultery." But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman
lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.114
* I. "MALE AND FEMALE HE
CREATED THEM . . ."
2331 "God is love and in
himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human
race in his own image . . .. God inscribed in the humanity of man and
woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love
and communion."115
"God created man in his own image
. . . male and female he created them";116 He blessed
them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply";117 "When
God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and female he created
them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."118
2332 Sexuality affects all
aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul. It especially
concerns affectivity, the capacity to love and to procreate, and in a more
general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others.
2333 Everyone, man and woman,
should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity. Physical, moral, and
spiritual difference and complementarity are oriented toward the
goods of marriage and the flourishing of family life. The harmony of the couple
and of society depends in part on the way in which the complementarity, needs,
and mutual support between the sexes are lived out.
2334 "In creating men 'male
and female,' God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity."119
"Man is a person, man and woman equally so, since both were created in the
image and likeness of the personal God."120
2335 Each of the two sexes is an
image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a
different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of
imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: "Therefore
a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become
one flesh."121 All human generations proceed from this union.122
2336 Jesus came to restore creation
to the purity of its origins. In the Sermon on the Mount, he interprets God's
plan strictly: "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit
adultery.' But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has
already committed adultery with her in his heart."123 What God
has joined together, let not man put asunder.124
The tradition of the Church has understood the
sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.
II. THE VOCATION TO CHASTITY
2337 Chastity means the successful
integration of sexuality within the person and thus the inner unity of man in
his bodily and spiritual being. Sexuality, in which man's belonging to the
bodily and biological world is expressed, becomes personal and truly human when
it is integrated into the relationship of one person to another, in the
complete and lifelong mutual gift of a man and a woman.
The virtue of chastity therefore involves the
integrity of the person and the integrality of the gift.
The integrity of the person
2338 The chaste person maintains the integrity
of the powers of life and love placed in him. This integrity ensures the unity
of the person; it is opposed to any behavior that would impair it. It tolerates
neither a double life nor duplicity in speech.125
2339 Chastity includes an apprenticeship
in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom. The alternative is
clear: either man governs his passions and finds peace, or he lets himself be
dominated by them and becomes unhappy.126 "Man's dignity
therefore requires him to act out of conscious and free choice, as moved and
drawn in a personal way from within, and not by blind impulses in himself or by
mere external constraint. Man gains such dignity when, ridding himself of all
slavery to the passions, he presses forward to his goal by freely choosing what
is good and, by his diligence and skill, effectively secures for himself the
means suited to this end."127
2340 Whoever wants to remain
faithful to his baptismal promises and resist temptations will want to adopt
the means for doing so: self-knowledge, practice of an ascesis adapted to the
situations that confront him, obedience to God's commandments, exercise of the
moral virtues, and fidelity to prayer. "Indeed it is through chastity that
we are gathered together and led back to the unity from which we were
fragmented into multiplicity."128
2341 The virtue of chastity comes
under the cardinal virtue of temperance, which seeks to permeate the
passions and appetites of the senses with reason.
2342 Self-mastery is a long and
exacting work. One can never consider it acquired once and for all. It
presupposes renewed effort at all stages of life.129 The effort
required can be more intense in certain periods, such as when the personality
is being formed during childhood and adolescence.
2343 Chastity has laws of
growth which progress through stages marked by imperfection and too often
by sin. "Man . . . day by day builds himself up through his many
free decisions; and so he knows, loves, and accomplishes moral good by stages
of growth."130
2344 Chastity represents an
eminently personal task; it also involves a cultural effort, for there
is "an interdependence between personal betterment and the improvement of
society."131 Chastity presupposes respect for the rights of the
person, in particular the right to receive information and an education that
respect the moral and spiritual dimensions of human life.
2345 Chastity is a moral virtue.
It is also a gift from God, a grace, a fruit of spiritual effort.132
The Holy Spirit enables one whom the water of Baptism has regenerated to
imitate the purity of Christ.133
The integrality of the gift of self
2346 Charity is the form of
all the virtues. Under its influence, chastity appears as a school of the gift
of the person. Self-mastery is ordered to the gift of self. Chastity leads him
who practices it to become a witness to his neighbor of God's fidelity and
loving kindness.
2347 The virtue of chastity
blossoms in friendship. It shows the disciple how to follow and imitate
him who has chosen us as his friends,134 who has given himself
totally to us and allows us to participate in his divine estate. Chastity is a
promise of immortality.
Chastity is expressed notably in friendship
with one's neighbor. Whether it develops between persons of the same or
opposite sex, friendship represents a great good for all. It leads to spiritual
communion.
The various forms of chastity
2348 All the baptized are called to chastity.
The Christian has "put on Christ,"135 the model for all
chastity. All Christ's faithful are called to lead a chaste life in keeping
with their particular states of life. At the moment of his Baptism, the
Christian is pledged to lead his affective life in chastity.
2349 "People should cultivate
[chastity] in the way that is suited to their state of life. Some profess
virginity or consecrated celibacy which enables them to give themselves to God
alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner. Others live in the way
prescribed for all by the moral law, whether they are married or single."136
Married people are called to live conjugal chastity; others practice chastity
in continence:
There are three forms of
the virtue of chastity: the first is that of spouses, the second that of
widows, and the third that of virgins. We do not praise any one of them to the
exclusion of the others. . . . This is what makes for the richness of
the discipline of the Church.137
2350 Those who are engaged to
marry are called to live chastity in continence. They should see in this
time of testing a discovery of mutual respect, an apprenticeship in fidelity,
and the hope of receiving one another from God. They should reserve for
marriage the expressions of affection that belong to married love. They will
help each other grow in chastity.
Offenses against chastity
2351 Lust is disordered
desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is
morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and
unitive purposes.
2352 By masturbation is to
be understood the deliberate stimulation of the genital organs in order to
derive sexual pleasure. "Both the Magisterium of the Church, in the course
of a constant tradition, and the moral sense of the faithful have been in no
doubt and have firmly maintained that masturbation is an intrinsically and
gravely disordered action."138 "The deliberate use of the
sexual faculty, for whatever reason, outside of marriage is essentially
contrary to its purpose." For here sexual pleasure is sought outside of
"the sexual relationship which is demanded by the moral order and in which
the total meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of
true love is achieved."139
To form an equitable judgment about the
subjects' moral responsibility and to guide pastoral action, one must take into
account the affective immaturity, force of acquired habit, conditions of
anxiety or other psychological or social factors that lessen, if not even
reduce to a minimum, moral culpability.
2353 Fornication is carnal union between
an unmarried man and an unmarried woman. It is gravely contrary to the dignity
of persons and of human sexuality which is naturally ordered to the good of
spouses and the generation and education of children. Moreover, it is a grave
scandal when there is corruption of the young.
2354 Pornography consists
in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in
order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against
chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses
to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors,
vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and
illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of
a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the
production and distribution of pornographic materials.
2355 Prostitution does
injury to the dignity of the person who engages in it, reducing the person to
an instrument of sexual pleasure. The one who pays sins gravely against
himself: he violates the chastity to which his Baptism pledged him and defiles
his body, the temple of the Holy Spirit.140 Prostitution is a social
scourge. It usually involves women, but also men, children, and adolescents
(The latter two cases involve the added sin of scandal.). While it is always
gravely sinful to engage in prostitution, the imputability of the offense can
be attenuated by destitution, blackmail, or social pressure.
2356 Rape is the forcible
violation of the sexual intimacy of another person. It does injury to justice
and charity. Rape deeply wounds the respect, freedom, and physical and moral
integrity to which every person has a right. It causes grave damage that can
mark the victim for life. It is always an intrinsically evil act. Graver still
is the rape of children committed by parents (incest) or those responsible for
the education of the children entrusted to them.
Chastity and homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality refers to
relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or
predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a
great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its
psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred
Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,141
tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically
disordered."142 They are contrary to the natural law. They
close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine
affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be
approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have
deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is
objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be
accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination
in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's
will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of
the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called
to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at
times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental
grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian
perfection.
III. THE LOVE OF HUSBAND AND WIFE
2360 Sexuality is ordered to the
conjugal love of man and woman. In marriage the physical intimacy of the
spouses becomes a sign and pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds
between baptized persons are sanctified by the sacrament.
2361 "Sexuality, by means of
which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are
proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but
concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a
truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and
woman commit themselves totally to one another until death."143
Tobias got out of bed and
said to Sarah, "Sister, get up, and let us pray and implore our Lord that
he grant us mercy and safety." So she got up, and they began to pray and
implore that they might be kept safe. Tobias began by saying, "Blessed are
you, O God of our fathers. . . . You made Adam, and for him you made
his wife Eve as a helper and support. From the two of them the race of mankind
has sprung. You said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; let us make
a helper for him like himself.' I now am taking this kinswoman of mine, not
because of lust, but with sincerity. Grant that she and I may find mercy and
that we may grow old together." And they both said, "Amen, Amen."
Then they went to sleep for the night.144
2362 "The acts in marriage by which the
intimate and chaste union of the spouses takes place are noble and honorable;
the truly human performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify
and enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude."145 Sexuality is
a source of joy and pleasure:
The Creator himself
. . . established that in the [generative] function, spouses should
experience pleasure and enjoyment of body and spirit. Therefore, the spouses do
nothing evil in seeking this pleasure and enjoyment. They accept what the
Creator has intended for them. At the same time, spouses should know how to
keep themselves within the limits of just moderation.146
2363 The spouses' union achieves the twofold end
of marriage: the good of the spouses themselves and the transmission of life.
These two meanings or values of marriage cannot be separated without altering
the couple's spiritual life and compromising the goods of marriage and the
future of the family.
The conjugal love of man and woman thus stands
under the twofold obligation of fidelity and fecundity.
* Conjugal fidelity
2364 The married couple forms
"the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator and
governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their
irrevocable personal consent."147 Both give themselves
definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on
they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses
the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble.148
"What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."149
2365 Fidelity expresses constancy
in keeping one's given word. God is faithful. The Sacrament of Matrimony
enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through
conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.
St. John Chrysostom
suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: I have taken you in my
arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life
is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that
we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us.
. . . I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more
bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you.150
* The fecundity of marriage
2366 Fecundity is a gift, an end of marriage,
for conjugal love naturally tends to be fruitful. A child does not come from
outside as something added on to the mutual love of the spouses, but springs
from the very heart of that mutual giving, as its fruit and fulfillment. So the
Church, which is "on the side of life,"151 teaches that
"it is necessary that each and every marriage act remain ordered per se
to the procreation of human life."152 "This particular
doctrine, expounded on numerous occasions by the Magisterium, is based on the
inseparable connection, established by God, which man on his own initiative may
not break, between the unitive significance and the procreative significance
which are both inherent to the marriage act."153
2367 Called to give life, spouses
share in the creative power and fatherhood of God.154 "Married
couples should regard it as their proper mission to transmit human life and to
educate their children; they should realize that they are thereby cooperating
with the love of God the Creator and are, in a certain sense, its
interpreters. They will fulfill this duty with a sense of human and Christian
responsibility."155
2368 A particular aspect of this responsibility
concerns the regulation of procreation. For just reasons, spouses may
wish to space the births of their children. It is their duty to make certain
that their desire is not motivated by selfishness but is in conformity with the
generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood. Moreover, they should conform
their behavior to the objective criteria of morality:
When it is a question of
harmonizing married love with the responsible transmission of life, the
morality of the behavior does not depend on sincere intention and evaluation of
motives alone; but it must be determined by objective criteria, criteria drawn
from the nature of the person and his acts criteria that respect the total
meaning of mutual self-giving and human procreation in the context of true
love; this is possible only if the virtue of married chastity is practiced with
sincerity of heart.156
2369 "By safeguarding both these essential
aspects, the unitive and the procreative, the conjugal act preserves in its
fullness the sense of true mutual love and its orientation toward man's exalted
vocation to parenthood."157
2370 Periodic continence, that is, the methods
of birth regulation based on self-observation and the use of infertile periods,
is in conformity with the objective criteria of morality.158 These
methods respect the bodies of the spouses, encourage tenderness between them,
and favor the education of an authentic freedom. In contrast, "every action
which, whether in anticipation of the conjugal act, or in its accomplishment,
or in the development of its natural consequences, proposes, whether as an end
or as a means, to render procreation impossible" is intrinsically evil:159
Thus the innate language
that expresses the total reciprocal self-giving of husband and wife is
overlaid, through contraception, by an objectively contradictory language,
namely, that of not giving oneself totally to the other. This leads not only to
a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner
truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal
totality. . . . The difference, both anthropological and moral,
between contraception and recourse to the rhythm of the cycle . . .
involves in the final analysis two irreconcilable concepts of the human person
and of human sexuality.160
2371 "Let all be convinced
that human life and the duty of transmitting it are not limited by the horizons
of this life only: their true evaluation and full significance can be
understood only in reference to man's eternal destiny."161
2372 The
state has a responsibility for its citizens' well-being. In this capacity it is
legitimate for it to intervene to orient the demography of the population. This
can be done by means of objective and respectful information, but certainly not
by authoritarian, coercive measures. The state may not legitimately usurp the
initiative of spouses, who have the primary responsibility for the procreation
and education of their children.162 In this area, it is not
authorized to employ means contrary to the moral law.
MARRIAGE
IV. THE EFFECTS OF THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
1638 "From a valid marriage arises a bond
between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive;
furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it
were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special
sacrament."142
The marriage bond
1639 The consent by which the spouses mutually
give and receive one another is sealed by God himself.143 From their
covenant arises "an institution, confirmed by the divine law,
. . . even in the eyes of society."144 The covenant
between the spouses is integrated into God's covenant with man: "Authentic
married love is caught up into divine love."145
1640 Thus the marriage bond
has been established by God himself in such a way that a marriage concluded and
consummated between baptized persons can never be dissolved. This bond, which
results from the free human act of the spouses and their consummation of the
marriage, is a reality, henceforth irrevocable, and gives rise to a covenant
guaranteed by God's fidelity. The Church does not have the power to contravene
this disposition of divine wisdom.146
The grace of the sacrament of Matrimony
1641 "By reason of their state in life and
of their order, [Christian spouses] have their own special gifts in the People
of God."147 This grace proper to the sacrament of Matrimony is
intended to perfect the couple's love and to strengthen their indissoluble
unity. By this grace they "help one another to attain holiness in their
married life and in welcoming and educating their children."148
1642 Christ is the source of
this grace. "Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant
of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters
Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony."149
Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and
so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to
bear one another's burdens, to "be subject to one another out of reverence
for Christ,"150 and to love one another with supernatural, tender,
and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here
on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
How can I ever express the
happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering,
sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father?
. . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope,
one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both
children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and
flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.151
V. THE GOODS AND REQUIREMENTS OF CONJUGAL LOVE
1643 "Conjugal love involves
a totality, in which all the elements of the person enter - appeal of the body
and instinct, power of feeling and affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of
will. It aims at a deeply personal unity, a unity that, beyond union in one
flesh, leads to forming one heart and soul; it demands indissolubility and
faithfulness in definitive mutual giving; and it is open to fertility.
In a word it is a question of the normal characteristics of all natural
conjugal love, but with a new significance which not only purifies and strengthens
them, but raises them to the extent of making them the expression of
specifically Christian values."152
The unity and indissolubility of marriage
1644 The love of the spouses requires, of its
very nature, the unity and indissolubility of the spouses' community of
persons, which embraces their entire life: "so they are no longer two, but
one flesh."153 They "are called to grow continually in
their communion through day-to-day fidelity to their marriage promise of total
mutual self-giving."154 This human communion is confirmed,
purified, and completed by communion in Jesus Christ, given through the
sacrament of Matrimony. It is deepened by lives of the common faith and by the
Eucharist received together.
1645 "The unity of marriage,
distinctly recognized by our Lord, is made clear in the equal personal dignity
which must be accorded to man and wife in mutual and unreserved
affection."155 Polygamy is contrary to conjugal love
which is undivided and exclusive.156
* The fidelity of conjugal love
1646 By its very nature conjugal love requires
the inviolable fidelity of the spouses. This is the consequence of the gift of
themselves which they make to each other. Love seeks to be definitive; it
cannot be an arrangement "until further notice." The "intimate
union of marriage, as a mutual giving of two persons, and the good of the
children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and require an unbreakable
union between them."157
1647 The deepest reason is found in the fidelity
of God to his covenant, in that of Christ to his Church. Through the sacrament
of Matrimony the spouses are enabled to represent this fidelity and witness to
it. Through the sacrament, the indissolubility of marriage receives a new and
deeper meaning.
1648 It can seem difficult, even impossible, to
bind oneself for life to another human being. This makes it all the more important
to proclaim the Good News that God loves us with a definitive and irrevocable
love, that married couples share in this love, that it supports and sustains
them, and that by their own faithfulness they can be witnesses to God's
faithful love. Spouses who with God's grace give this witness, often in very
difficult conditions, deserve the gratitude and support of the ecclesial
community.158
1649 Yet
there are some situations in which living together becomes practically
impossible for a variety of reasons. In such cases the Church permits the
physical separation of the couple and their living apart. The spouses do
not cease to be husband and wife before God and so are not free to contract a
new union. In this difficult situation, the best solution would be, if
possible, reconciliation. The Christian community is called to help these
persons live out their situation in a Christian manner and in fidelity to their
marriage bond which remains indissoluble.159
1650 Today
there are numerous Catholics in many countries who have recourse to civil divorce
and contract new civil unions. In fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ -
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against
her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery"160 the Church maintains that a new union cannot be
recognized as valid, if the first marriage was. If the divorced are remarried
civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God's
law. Consequently, they cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this
situation persists. For the same reason, they cannot exercise certain ecclesial
responsibilities. Reconciliation through the sacrament of Penance can be
granted only to those who have repented for having violated the sign of the
covenant and of fidelity to Christ, and who are committed to living in complete
continence.
1651 Toward Christians who live
in this situation, and who often keep the faith and desire to bring up their
children in a Christian manner, priests and the whole community must manifest
an attentive solicitude, so that they do not consider themselves separated from
the Church, in whose life they can and must participate as baptized persons:
They should be encouraged to listen to the
Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to
contribute to works of charity and to community efforts for justice, to bring
up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice
of penance and thus implore, day by day, God's grace.161
* The openness to fertility
1652 "By its very nature the
institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and
education of the offspring and it is in them that it finds its crowning
glory."162
Children are the supreme
gift of marriage and contribute greatly to the good of the parents themselves.
God himself said: "It is not good that man should be alone," and
"from the beginning [he] made them male and female"; wishing to
associate them in a special way in his own creative work, God blessed man and
woman with the words: "Be fruitful and multiply." Hence, true married
love and the whole structure of family life which results from it, without
diminishment of the other ends of marriage, are directed to disposing the
spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who
through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day.163
1653 The fruitfulness of conjugal
love extends to the fruits of the moral, spiritual, and supernatural life that
parents hand on to their children by education. Parents are the principal and
first educators of their children.164 In this sense the fundamental
task of marriage and family is to be at the service of life.165
1654 Spouses to whom God has not granted
children can nevertheless have a conjugal life full of meaning, in both human
and Christian terms. Their marriage can radiate a fruitfulness of charity, of
hospitality, and of sacrifice
DIVORCE
Divorce
2382 The Lord Jesus insisted on
the original intention of the Creator who willed that marriage be indissoluble.174
He abrogates the accommodations that had slipped into the old Law.175
Between the baptized, "a ratified and
consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power or for any reason
other than death."176
2383 The separation of
spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases
provided for by canon law.177
If civil divorce remains the only possible way of
ensuring certain legal rights, the care of the children, or the protection of
inheritance, it can be tolerated and does not constitute a moral offense.
2384 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. Divorce does
injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign.
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:
If a husband, separated
from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes
that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress,
because she has drawn another's husband to herself.178
2385 Divorce is immoral also because it
introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings
grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of
their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect
which makes it truly a plague on society.
2386 It can happen that one of the
spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law; this spouse
therefore has not contravened the moral law. There is a considerable difference
between a spouse who has sincerely tried to be faithful to the sacrament of
marriage and is unjustly abandoned, and one who through his own grave fault
destroys a canonically valid marriage.179
Other offenses against the dignity of marriage
2387 The predicament of a man who,
desiring to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to repudiate one or more wives
with whom he has shared years of conjugal life, is understandable. However polygamy
is not in accord with the moral law." [Conjugal] communion is
radically contradicted by polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the plan of
God which was revealed from the beginning, because it is contrary to the equal
personal dignity of men and women who in matrimony give themselves with a love
that is total and therefore unique and exclusive."180 The
Christian who has previously lived in polygamy has a grave duty in justice to
honor the obligations contracted in regard to his former wives and his
children.
2388 Incest designates
intimate relations between relatives or in-laws within a degree that prohibits
marriage between them.181 St. Paul stigmatizes this especially grave
offense: "It is actually reported that there is immorality among you
. . . for a man is living with his father's wife. . . . In
the name of the Lord Jesus . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh. . . . "182 Incest
corrupts family relationships and marks a regression toward animality.
2389 Connected to incest is any
sexual abuse perpetrated by adults on children or adolescents entrusted to
their care. The offense is compounded by the scandalous harm done to the
physical and moral integrity of the young, who will remain scarred by it all
their lives; and the violation of responsibility for their upbringing.
2390 In a so-called free union,
a man and a woman refuse to give juridical and public form to a liaison
involving sexual intimacy.
The expression "free union" is fallacious:
what can "union" mean when the partners make no commitment to one
another, each exhibiting a lack of trust in the other, in himself, or in the
future?
The expression covers a number of different
situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage as such, or inability to make
long-term commitments.183 All these situations offend against the
dignity of marriage; they destroy the very idea of the family; they weaken the
sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the moral law. The sexual act must take
place exclusively within marriage. Outside of marriage it always constitutes a
grave sin and excludes one from sacramental communion.
2391 Some today claim a "right
to a trial marriage" where there is an intention of getting married
later. However firm the purpose of those who engage in premature sexual
relations may be, "the fact is that such liaisons can scarcely ensure
mutual sincerity and fidelity in a relationship between a man and a woman, nor,
especially, can they protect it from inconstancy of desires or whim."184
Carnal union is morally legitimate only when a definitive community of life
between a man and woman has been established. Human love does not tolerate
"trial marriages." It demands a total and definitive gift of persons
to one another.185
IN BRIEF
2392 "Love is the fundamental and innate
vocation of every human being" (FC 11).
2393 By creating the human being man and woman,
God gives personal dignity equally to the one and the other. Each of them, man
and woman, should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity.
2394 Christ is the model of chastity. Every
baptized person is called to lead a chaste life, each according to his
particular state of life.
2395 Chastity means the integration of sexuality
within the person. It includes an apprenticeship in self-mastery.
2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity
are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.
2397 The covenant which spouses have freely
entered into entails faithful love. It imposes on them the obligation to keep
their marriage indissoluble.
2398 Fecundity is a good, a gift and an end of
marriage. By giving life, spouses participate in God's fatherhood.
2399 The regulation of births represents one of
the aspects of responsible fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate intentions on
the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means
(for example, direct sterilization or contraception).
2400 Adultery, divorce, polygamy, and free union are grave offenses against the dignity of marriage.
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