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.[170] The sixth commandment and the New Testament forbid
adultery absolutely.[171] The prophets denounce the gravity of adultery;
they see it as an image of the sin of idolatry.[172]
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.[173] He abrogates the accommodations
that had slipped into the old Law.[174]
Between the baptized, "a ratified and consummated marriage cannot be
dissolved by any human power or for any reason other than death."[175]
2383 The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be
legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law.[176]
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.[177]
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.[178]
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."[179] 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.[180] 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...."[181] 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.[182] 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."[183] 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.[184]
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.
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