The Sacraments and Their Celebration Matrimony
X. THE SEPARATION OF THE SPOUSES
2. SEPARATION WHILE THE BOND ENDURES
Marriage is defined as ''living together in undivided partnership." Thus, married couples are obliged to preserve the common bond of
conjugal cohabitation unless a justifying reason excuse them. 173 Normally conjugal life requires and obliges to the habitual sharing of bed, board, and home (communio tori, mensoe et cohabitationis) for the full attainment of the purposes of marriage. Severance of this conjugal life, saving the bond itself, is called imperfect divorce or separation… Mutual consent to complete and perpetual separation is seldom permissible because of the danger of incontinence and scandal. Only the Holy See may authorize this in the case of couples desiring a higher life of perfection.
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Denzinger The Sources of Catholic Dogma
Documents of the Roman Pontiffs and of the Councils
Callistus II 1119-1124 Lateran Council I 1123
CALLISTUS II 1119-1124
LATERAN COUNCIL I 1123
Ecumenical IX (concerning investitures)
Simony, Celibacy, Investiture, Incest *
359 Can. 1. 360 Can. 3. We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, or subdeacons the intimacy of concubines and of wives, and
cohabitation with other women, except those with whom for reasons of necessity alone the Nicene Synod permits them to live, that is, a mother, sister, paternal or maternal aunt, or others of this kind concerning
whom no suspicion may justly arise [see n. 52 b f.]. *
HONORIUS II 1124-1130
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The Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World Pope John Paul II
FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO
Part Four
b) De Facto Free Unions
- This means unions without any publicly recognized institutional bond, either civil or religious. This phenomenon, which is becoming ever more frequent, cannot fail to concern pastors of souls, also because it may be based on widely varying factors, the consequences of which may perhaps be containable by suitable action.
Some people consider themselves almost forced into a free union by difficult economic, cultural or religious situations, on the grounds that, if they contracted a regular marriage, they would be exposed to some form of harm, would lose economic advantages, would be discriminated against, etc. In other cases, however, one encounters people who scorn, rebel against or reject society, the institution of the family and the social and political order, or who are solely seeking pleasure. Then there are those who are driven to such situations by extreme ignorance or poverty, sometimes by a conditioning due to situations of real injustice, or by a certain psychological immaturity that makes them uncertain or afraid to enter into a stable and definitive union. In some countries, traditional customs presume that the true and proper marriage will take place only after a period of cohabitation and the birth of the first child.
Each of these elements presents the Church with arduous pastoral problems, by reason of the serious consequences deriving from them, both religious and moral (the loss of the religious sense of marriage seen in the light of the Covenant of God with His people; deprivation of the grace of the sacrament; grave scandal), and also social consequences (the destruction of the concept of the family; the weakening of the sense of fidelity, also towards society; possible psychological damage to the children; the strengthening of selfishness).
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