Summary of issue:
The Lord Jesus Christ makes four statements regarding divorce in the Bible. Two of these reflect total opposition to divorce whereas two others indicate acceptance of divorce on the grounds of adultery, and the right to remarry for the innocent party. (see Divorce) The Roman Catholic Church (RCC) emphatically states that divorce is unlawful for a couple who was legally married under mutual consent and was baptized into the Catholic Church. However, when we study the RCC laws regarding an annulment, we see that it goes through technical gymnastics in order to condone Ecclesiastical annulments.

An annulment sanctioned by the RCC is, in actual fact, identical to a divorce in practice, and in law it goes beyond the concept of a divorce. The Catholic Church in granting an annulment declares legally that a marriage never existed! And so one can end up with the absurd situation of being married and having children, and yet find that in the eyes of the Church one was never married at all! This is done through technical manipulation and manufactured terms found under the laws of annulment. For example, one chief reason for an RCC annulment is what is called a ‘diriment impediment.’ A ‘diriment impediment’ is any hindrance serious enough to nullify a marriage automatically. Such could be a lack of consent of either party to marry, or a deficiency in ‘the form of marriage,’ meaning a marriage which was not performed before a Priest and two witnesses. Thus the RCC has evolved a terminology that outclasses even the Pharisees. Rome claims this bizarre power because she sees her marriages to be Sacramental. It is therefore within her power to make or break marriages according to her own will and purposes.

Is marriage made valid at the command of Rome? In Scripture marriage is regulated according to the will and counsel of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matt. 19:5 “…a man [shall] leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife.” This alone is how a marriage becomes valid before God.