OFFENSES AGAINST

THE DIGNITY OF
MARRIAGE
 Adultery
• 2380 Adultery refers to marital
infidelity. When two partners, of
whom at least one is married to
another party, have sexual relations -
even transient ones - they commit
adultery. Christ condemns even
adultery of mere desire.
The sixth commandment and the New
Testament forbid adultery absolutely.
The prophets denounce the gravity of
adultery; they see it as an image of
the sin of idolatry.
2381 Adultery is an injustice. He who
commits adultery fails in his
commitment. He does injury to the sign
of the covenant which the marriage
bond is, transgresses the rights of the
other spouse, and undermines the
institution of marriage by breaking
the contract on which it is based. He
compromises the good of human
generation and the welfare of children
who need their parents' stable union.
 Divorce
• 2382 The Lord Jesus insisted on
the original intention of the
Creator who willed that marriage
be indissoluble. He abrogates the
accommodations that had slipped
into the old Law.
• Between the baptized, "a
ratified and consummated
marriage cannot be dissolved
by any human power or for any
reason other than death."
• 2383 The separation of spouses
while maintaining the marriage bond
can be legitimate in certain cases
provided for by canon law.
• If civil divorce remains the only
possible way of ensuring certain legal
rights, the care of the children, or the
protection of inheritance, it can be
tolerated and does not constitute a
moral offense.
• 2384 Divorce is a grave offense
against the natural law. It claims to
break the contract, to which the
spouses freely consented, to live
with each other till death. Divorce
does injury to the covenant of
salvation, of which sacramental
marriage is the sign.
• Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized
by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture:
the remarried spouse is then in a situation of
public and permanent adultery:
• If a husband, separated from his
wife, approaches another woman,
he is an adulterer because he
makes that woman commit
adultery, and the woman who
lives with him is an adulteress,
because she has drawn another's
husband to herself.
• 2385 Divorce is immoral also 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.
• 2386 It can happen that one of the
spouses is the innocent victim of a divorce
decreed by civil law; this spouse therefore
has not contravened the moral law. There
is a considerable difference between a
spouse who has sincerely tried to be
faithful to the sacrament of marriage and
is unjustly abandoned, and one who
through his own grave fault destroys a
canonically valid marriage
Other offenses against
the dignity of marriage
• 2387 The predicament of a man who, desiring
to convert to the Gospel, is obliged to
repudiate one or more wives with whom he
has shared years of conjugal life, is
understandable. However polygamy is not in
accord with the moral law." [Conjugal]
communion is radically contradicted by
polygamy; this, in fact, directly negates the
plan of God which was revealed from the
beginning, because it is contrary to the equal
personal dignity of men and women who in
matrimony give themselves with a love that is
total and therefore unique and exclusive.
." The Christian who has previously
lived in polygamy has a grave duty in
justice to honor the obligations
contracted in regard to his former
wives and his children.
• 2388 Incest designates intimate relations
between relatives or in-laws within a degree
that prohibits marriage between them. St.
Paul stigmatizes this especially grave offense:
"It is actually reported that there is immorality
among you . . . for a man is living with his
father's wife. . . . In the name of the Lord
Jesus . . . you are to deliver this man to Satan
for the destruction of the flesh. . . . " Incest
corrupts family relationships and marks a
regression toward animality.
• 2389 Connected to incest is any sexual
abuse perpetrated by adults on
children or adolescents entrusted to
their care. The offense is compounded
by the scandalous harm done to the
physical and moral integrity of the
young, who will remain scarred by it all
their lives; and the violation of
responsibility for their upbringing.
• 2390 In a so-called free union, a man
and a woman refuse to give juridical
and public form to a liaison involving
sexual intimacy.
• The expression "free union" is
fallacious: what can "union" mean
when the partners make no
commitment to one another, each
exhibiting a lack of trust in the other,
in himself, or in the future?
• The expression covers a number of different
situations: concubinage, rejection of marriage
as such, or inability to make long-term
commitments. All these situations offend
against the dignity of marriage; they destroy
the very idea of the family; they weaken the
sense of fidelity. They are contrary to the
moral law. The sexual act must take place
exclusively within marriage. Outside of
marriage it always constitutes a grave sin and
excludes one from sacramental communion.
• 2391 Some today claim a "right to a trial
marriage" where there is an intention of
getting married later. However firm the
purpose of those who engage in
premature sexual relations may be, "the
fact is that such liaisons can scarcely
ensure mutual sincerity and fidelity in a
relationship between a man and a
woman, nor, especially, can they protect
it from inconstancy of desires or whim
• ." Carnal union is morally legitimate only when
a definitive community of life between a man
and woman has been established. Human love
does not tolerate "trial marriages." It
demands a total and definitive gift of persons
to one another.
 IN BRIEF
• 2392 "Love is the fundamental and
innate vocation of every human being"
(FC 11).
• 2393 By creating the human being man
and woman, God gives personal dignity
equally to the one and the other. Each of
them, man and woman, should
acknowledge and accept his sexual
identity.
• 2394 Christ is the model of chastity. Every
baptized person is called to lead a chaste
life, each according to his particular state
of life.
• 2395 Chastity means the integration of
sexuality within the person. It includes an
apprenticeship in self-mastery.
• 2396 Among the sins gravely contrary to
chastity are masturbation, fornication,
pornography, and homosexual practices.
• 2397 The covenant which spouses have freely
entered into entails faithful love. It imposes
on them the obligation to keep their marriage
indissoluble.
• 2398 Fecundity is a good, a gift and an end of
marriage. By giving life, spouses participate in
God's fatherhood.
• 2399 The regulation of births represents
one of the aspects of responsible
fatherhood and motherhood. Legitimate
intentions on the part of the spouses do
not justify recourse to morally
unacceptable means (for example, direct
sterilization or contraception).
• 2400 Adultery, divorce, polygamy, and
free union are grave offenses against the
dignity of marriage.