I ask the reader to pay attention to the following texts:
“If anyone says that the bond of marriage can be dissolved because of heresy, or molestation, or the malicious abandonment of one spouse by the other — let him be excommunicated” (Council of Trent, Denzinger-Schoenmetzer, Enchiridion Symbolorum, 1805).
“If anyone says that the Church is in error when it teaches—according to the Gospel and apostolic doctrine (cf. Mark 10:1 Cor. 7)—that the marriage bond cannot be dissolved because of the adultery of one of the spouses; that neither party, not even the innocent one who gave no cause for the adultery, may contract another marriage while the other spouse is still living; and that both he who, having dismissed an adulterous wife, marries another, and she who, having abandoned her husband, marries another, commit adultery—let him be excommunicated.” (Council of Trent, ibid., 1807).
“The matrimonial bond, once established as a sacrament, is indissoluble. Even when adultery, heresy, or other serious causes lead to physical separation, neither spouse may lawfully enter into a new marriage.” (Benedict XIV, ibid. 2536).
These documents unequivocally express the Church’s Supreme Magisterium’s categorical rejection of divorce. Did the lawyers—most of whom are Catholic—who recently requested the implementation of divorce in Brazil through a proclamation at the National Conference of the Brazilian Bar Association intend to explicitly challenge this teaching?
I don’t think so. How, then, can we explain the Brazilian Bar Association’s National Conference’s unusual decision?
It doesn’t seem difficult to me. The smoke of Satan is increasingly permeating our glorious yet poor Church. Many people no longer know what the Church’s authentic teaching is, even on essential points such as divorce.
The introduction of divorce in Italy shocked the whole world. There were clergymen and prominent lay figures who publicly supported divorce. The few who were reprimanded were generally treated leniently. Instead of mobilizing all its strength and prestige in the fight, it would seem that the Catholic Hierarchy limited itself to the minimum required by decency, if that. This created the impression among the public that the Church is easing up on divorce. This is not surprising, as it is witnessing the Vatican’s gradual easing up on communism. Now, divorce is only one of the points on the communist agenda, and those who ease up on the whole may well ease up on the part.
This tragic confusion, which explains the Brazilian Bar Association’s deplorable attitude, can easily be replicated across many other sectors of national opinion, also deluded about the legitimacy of a Catholic softening on divorce.
Thus, the smoke of Satan, the doctrinal confusion that rages in the Church, gives divorce advocates opportunities for victory they would never have in Brazil under normal circumstances.
* * *
Here is the final point. The anti-divorce tradition among our people remains so strong that a serious effort by the Catholic hierarchy will suffice to dispel the smoke of Satan in this matter and prevent a divorce bill from being approved.
Let the Eminent Cardinals, Most Reverend Archbishops, and Bishops take what happened at the Brazilian Bar Association as a warning. Let them rise up, teach, proclaim, and, if necessary, condemn. If they do so immediately, the divorce bill will not pass. What joy, what glory for the Church, if they do so at once!
The failure of the divorce offensive depends entirely on them.
