Sometimes the Truth hurts, but it always sets us free

I just got an email from someone about a blog, wanting to know what I thought about it. I had to do some searching to find it, but I did! (Fric from Catholic Maniacs wrote the entry titled "Thoughts on Marriage, Divorce and Declarations of Nullity" on 12/8/2004. )


I am impressed with the original poster, and with the DRE that he was speaking of. 'Fric' understands that marriage is until death. Sure, it 'is not fair', but as the old song says, "I never promised you a rose garden' even in marriage. Life isn't fair.

There are three saints that are patrons of those of us who were forced into this civilly divorced state, though I did not know that. MANY in the history of our Church have been 'put away' by philandering spouses, by someone who wanted to 'find themselves', 'be fulfilled', or 'found their soul mates'. We of this generation are not the first. We are, however, the first to be left behind even by our Tribunals when we firmly believe that our marriage is valid. ALL marriages are to be considered valid ...ALL marriages. Those that we can KNOW are not, are few... for a Catholic to marry outside the Church (in a courthouse or another Church) without permission of the Church is a matter of form, and is not valid in the Church, no matter how many children may result, or how many years they may be together. A Catholic MUST be married in the Church, period, or have permission to be married elsewhere.

Those patron saints of divorced people are:

• Fabiola
• Guntramnus
• Helena