1. Divorce http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15 hw8D9w4s8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15 hw8D9w4s8 Funny http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW 1xPMymBGohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW 1xPMymBGo Not so Funny

2. Recap Over the last several lectures we have looked at some of the challenges faced in entering into a serious and intimate relationship Last lecture we looked at the sacrament of Marriage and how it is the ideal place for such intimate and adult relationships to take place Today we will look at the challenges faced when a marriage does not succeed.

3. Lesson By the end of the lesson the student will be able to: Understand some of the challenges faced by people getting a divorce The church teaching and understanding on dissolving a sacramental marriage

4. Divorce Divorce is the legal procedure that ends a valid marriage. Since marriage is a binding contract between a man and a woman, it is required that in order to terminate or end the marriage, an annulment or divorce is the correct legal procedure.

5. Jesus was very clear about his stance on divorce “And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, ‘Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one”? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, ‘For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for un-chastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.’" Teaching of the Church

6. The Church supports the indissoluble sacrament for many reasons the Catechism states that divorce is immoral because “it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.” Reasoning

7. GROUNDS FOR ANNULMENT For this reason, the Church will only allow a Catholic to marry again if they get an Annulment. What is Annulment? It is the declaration that the marriage never existed. How’s That Different from Divorce? With a divorce, the marriage still existed, but now is over.

8. GROUNDS FOR ANNULMENT The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage". The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other": "I take you to be my wife" - "I take you to be my husband." This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one flesh". If consent is lacking there is no marriage. The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, free of coercion or grave external fear. No human power can substitute for this consent. If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid. For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed. In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged. -Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1626-1629