Divorce is wrong because God says so

After I read the question of Rev. Father Antonio Maria Rosales, OFM, in his INQUIRER column (03/24/18): “Why are we so absolutely against divorce?” I became quite perturbed.

The only satisfactory argument is this: Because Divine Revelation says so. The Sacred Scriptures have confirmed it and, for more than two thousand years, the Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium have steadily defended the indissolubility of marriage – even when House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has argued that Israel, the country of Jesus Christ by birth, has a divorce law and that the Philippines is the earth’s last bastion of absolute marriage and the Vatican is the only other State with no divorce law.

Even when the Catholic Church “now appears to be increasingly out of touch with the concerns and challenges of the modern Filipino populace,” divorce remains the same, that is, evil and immoral. Why? Because God says so.

Jesus reinforces what God says so in the Sacred Scriptures

Although Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III was quoted as saying that the “dissolution of marriage is a new concept” (in the Philippines), divorce is as old as the Old Testament.

Moses tolerated divorce and, in the New Testament, the Pharisees asserted that the dissolution of a marriage was the husband’s right, referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4 of the Old Law.

But the New Testament fixed the Old Law, and Jesus Christ corrected Moses and the Pharisees.

In abrogating the accommodations that had slipped into the Old Law, our dear Lord Jesus now insists on the original intention of the Creator Who willed from the beginning that marriage should be indissoluble and permanent. With the authority of His Father in Heaven, Jesus makes this clarification:

“Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning” (Matthew 19:18).

And in reinforcing what YHWH God intended from the beginning: “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9), Jesus Christ bolsters the indissolubility of marriage which is expressed in the mutual and solemn promise made by the husband and his wife, “For better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish… until death do us part.”

Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium

The solemn teaching of Jesus against divorce has been handed down to us well-preserved and undiluted from the first Pentecost Sunday, and is now guarded by His Vicar on earth who exercises the Sacred Magisterium in matters of Faith and Morals.

In his 2016 Apostolic Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis quotes the Prophet Malachi: “For I hate divorce, says the Lord” (Mal 2:14-16). And the brave old man from Argentina in white robe bravely tells the world:

“Divorce is evil and the increasing number of divorces is very troubling” (Amoris Laetitia, 246).

And Pope Francis adds an imperative message, that is, the pastoral accompaniment after breakdown and divorce (241-246), adding the fact that “they are not excommunicated.”

On April 7, 1969, in addressing the world on Social Communications Day and the Family, Pope Blessed Paul VI listed THE DEFENSE OF DIVORCE as a direct assault on the fundamental value of the family.

To highlight the continuity of Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium in the Church, Pope Saint John Paul II repeated what Paul VI wrote in 1969 word-for-word in his 1981 Apostolic Exhortation, to wit:

“Every attack on the fundamental value of the family—meaning eroticism or violence, THE DEFENSE OF DIVORCE or of antisocial attitudes among young people—-is an attack on genuine human welfare and the good of society” (Familiaris Consortio, 76).

CBCP Statement on the divorce bill

The Philippine House of Representatives did just that when they, who are mostly Catholics, approved on third and final reading House Bill No. 7303 or the Absolute Divorce bill, the first time in Philippine history and ironically on the Feastday of Saint Joseph of the Holy Family.

Alleging that the Catholic Church is antiquated like a Seiko watch in a digital age, our honorable lawmakers have reintroduced the old Roman idea of “democratism” and advocated the policy of vox populi, which means that everything has to be put to a majority vote, and that the Catholic Church should learn to do whatever is popular (or what the people like).

It appears our Bishops, with all due respect, made a holy mistake when earlier on they entreated the Congressmen and women to do “further consultation with their constituents” and “ask people around” as an effective means of validating the universal value of marriage and family (March 13, 2018).

And there emerged the Radio Veritas-sponsored survey that says more and more Filipinos “strongly agree” with legalizing divorce and only 35 percent of Filipinos “strongly disagree” with it – validating instead the desire of the honorable Congressmen and women.

But Catholic Faith and Morals are not handed down from generation to generation by a democratic majority vote and not validated by what is popular.

Vox populi vox Dei

Vox populi vox Dei might sound ground-breaking when used in the Catholic context. But it could only make a “windsock” out of the Church that blows with the prevailing breeze, unfortunately confusing the truth with the majority opinion (to paraphrase Senator Jasper Irving in the 2007 drama film Lions for Lambs).

The profound shift in Filipinos’ attitudes cannot change the evil of divorce. Evil cannot become good just because it’s accepted by the majority.

Divorce is evil even when only the Vatican is the only State on earth that has none of it and even when the Holy Father, Catholic clergy, consecrated persons, and some loyal sons and daughters of the Catholic Church are the only ones standing to defend the indissolubility of marriage.

So, going back to the original question: “Why are we so absolutely against divorce?” Because God says so.

Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano is a Catholic writer, educator, management consultant, and motivational speaker. He is author of Pope Francis, the Catholic Bishop, and the Priest (Cardinal Sin Catholic Book Awardee for 2015). His latest oeuvre is entitled The Church Can Handle the Truth (2017). Comments to [email protected].