piety101:
Now you say I am spouting off non sense because I ask you to post quotes from the early church fathers about the declaration of nullity? But if I asked you to supply evidence for the necessity for baptism or the validity of the Eucharist, you sure wouldn’t hesitate, now would you? The truth is, there are no church fathers proof texts for a so called “declaration of nullity”, but you won’t admit it.
Marriage in the Catholic church was consider for LIFE or until one spouse would die. They were not free to remarry if the divorced spouse was alive. Even Jesus taught that. So don’t accuse me of non sense when I simply asked you to supply evidence from the fathers.
Hi Piety101, I believe you have a very pressing but misdirected question on marriage and annulments. The Church has never held that a person can acquire a civil divorce(like from their state) and then get an “annulment” as the Catholic form, and then go off and have fun re-marrying some other person(s). You are right in saying
Marriage in the Catholic church was consider for LIFE or until one spouse would die.
. I’m not sure on the issue of if one spouse dies, does that make it ligitimate to re-marry, but this thread is not for addressing that topic.
They were not free to remarry if the divorced spouse was alive.
Allow me to dissect this statement. “If the *divorced *spouse was alive.” (Emphasis mine). When you say “divorced” spouse, do you mean divorced Sacramentally (not possible) or divorced civilly? If the latter, then yes, I totally agree with you. If the former, then you must realize that there is a difference between ending a marriage because one or both of the partners desired to do so, and submitting your “marriage”(in quotes as you will see why later) to review by a Church Tribunal, which examines the “marriage” and sees if it was properly sanctioned/blessed/witnessed/consented to. And by consented to, I mean that the couple was open to the possibility of having children and that they realized that they couldn’t seek a civil divorce and then “re-marry”. If the Church Tribunal assesses that one of these conditions was not fullfilled at the time of pre-supposed “marriage”, then
sacramentally the marriage never occurred, but
civilly the marriage did. Meaning that the couple had basically been living in a situation where each partner shared in the income/benefits of the other, including their child(ren), without the benefit of a
sacramental marriage. This is otherwise known as “common-law marriage” for non-Catholics, as recognized by the State in which they live. For if a Catholic knowingly entered into a common-law marriage with (or without) children and claimed that it
was indeed a marriage, to say their friends or even the Church, that would be a grave sin(s) of fornication(sexual acts without being married), lying, and sacrilige against the Sacrament of Marriage(claiming that, as Catholic(s), you(and/or your “spouse”,
were married).
The truth is, there are no church fathers proof texts for a so called “declaration of nullity”, but you won’t admit it.
Now, do you for a
fact know that there is/are no examples of a declaration of nullity(even if it was not called that, example being: there is no word “trinity” or “purgatory” in the Bible, but those terms
developed and have a direct root in what was being taught in the Bible) being given out in the early Church? Based on the examples cited above by Shibboleth, LSK, ChrisR246, 1ke, and Br. Rich SFO, I beg to differ. For the sake of brevity(which I have probably already violated, lol), I will not include their quotes. It may sound harsh, but what 1ke said is true: no-one can do your homework for you. Your teachers chastised you for cheating in grade school, and for a good reason: it doesn’t help
you at all.
I realize that you want
concrete **in-your-face-like-how-the-Protestants-like-it **evidence from the [early] Church Fathers. Unless you
have done all the research and looked at all of their writings (like your past posts implicitly claim) I think it unfair to say that there is no evidence anywhere. I believe it was ChrisR246 (correct me if I’m wrong) who gave you the quote from an early pope. Also, remember that not every doctrine, discipline, practice, or custom
has to be found in the Bible
or early writings, although
most are, even if implicitly found. That is where we get the development of doctrine, and the “Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon the earth, shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon the earth, shall be loosed in Heaven.”, meaning that the Church on earth has the power to make decisions(like annulments, saying that a
sacramental marriage never took place) that are binding in Heaven.
I sincerely hope this helps, and if not, I join my suggestions with the others before me of appealing to a higher power, namely the professional Apologists available on this forum to help you. And if you already have, and we just don’t know about it, please let us know, so that we will stop talking about this
.
-Apolosist4Life
