Re: Pope refuses to relent on remarried Roman Catholics, abortion, same-sex unions
In the eyes of the Catholic Church, marriage is a sacrament - a holy bond between man and woman. It is the only sacrament where the priest is not the intercessor between the recepient and God. The couple themselves ar etheir own ministers before God. The Bible says - "What God has joined together, let man not seperate" and also that a man should leave his parents and become "one flesh" with his wife as ordained by God.
In the eyes of the Church, once married you can never be un-married (ie. divorced). The Church recognises neither civil marriages nor divorces.
It is possible, I think, to be married in a civil ceremony, have a civil divorce and then marry again in the Church. This is because the Church did not recognise the civil wedding. Thus, you were never married in the Church's eyes.
There can be no change in this view. If the Catholic Church did change such a core tenet, it would cease to be the Catholic Church.
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The Irish are one of the most ancient nations that I know of at this end of the world, and are from as mighty a race as the world ever brought forth.
For it is certain that Ireland hath had the use of letters very anciently and long before England; that they had letters anciently is nothing doubtful, for the Saxons of England are said to have their letters and learning, and learned men, from the Irish.
- Edmund Spenser (writer, and British Government Official in Ireland, AD 1596).
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