Divorce and Remarriage, Part II | National Catholic Reporter

Divorce and Remarriage, Part II | National Catholic Reporter by MSW.  MGB: Firs, read MSW then the comments, which follow:



This is where it is useful to remember that the Gospels were written decades after the Ascension of our Lord to Heaven and may have been addressed to first century Church problems as much as universal Truth.  I suspect that the Jesus who berated the Pharasees (of which he was one) and the Scribes for what we would now call their obsession with Ruberics would want a solution that serves the people, not the words attributed to Him.



As for the first case mentioned, remarriage should be an easy matter because of the violence in the first marriage.  Such violence is worse than adultery. It is sad the Lord did not mention this or it was not put in his mouth - but in that day women were almost like livestock in the eyes of the world.  It is time to correct this ommission.  As for the second case, the better option is not to dispense the priest from his vows but to allow him to marry.  While we will spend much more for married priests, we probably should anyway and the investment in making a priest is substantial.  Of course, I can guess that some who are in favor of letting priests go easily probably looked at pension fund trends and were relieved.  Such bean counters in the clergy should be treated as Our Lord treated the moneychangers in the Temple.



In the case of the former Mrs. Kennedy, she has a point. There is really no reason for an annulment but his adultery.  She should be free to remarry without procedures, but as I said yesterday, he should have been forever banned from remarrying (as a Catholic).  Since converting would ruin him politically, such a practice might have forced him to honor his wife and not seek greener pastures.



Jesus does tell us to carry our crosses (which is a double entendre considering he was a house builder) but he also says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.  I think this is what Francis gets in his core and hopefully he can transmit it to the rest of the Church (or get rid of those bishops who won't).