Divorce: Separating Fact From Fiction

There is great misunderstanding and misinformation about the Church's teaching on divorce. Even lifelong Catholics sometimes don’t have the facts straight.

Fiction - Divorce is a sin. Automatically!
Fact- The Church doesn't teach that getting divorced is a sin. For example, a husband who is abandoned by his wife may have done nothing wrong. The same may be true of a wife forced to leave an abusive husband to protect herself.

Fiction - A person who is divorced may not receive Holy Communion.
Fact - Divorce does not bring automatic excommunication. People who are divorced may receive the sacraments, including the Eucharist, unless they have remarried without having had the previous marriage annulled.

Fiction - An annulment is a Catholic divorce.
Fact - There's no such thing as a Catholic divorce. At a Catholic wedding, the state and the Church declare the couple is married. (That's why they need a marriage license as well as a priest.) A divorce is a civil act that dissolves the legal marriage. An annulment, on the other hand, says there never was a sacramental marriage in the first place. After examining the situation, the Church declares something stood in the way of there ever being a marriage. For example, the husband had no intention of being faithful or having children.

Fiction - The Church says the children from a marriage that has been annulled are considered illegitimate.
Fact - This simply isn't true. All marriages are recognized by the state and therefore all children produced from this civil union are considered legitimate. One may be married in the eyes of the civil authorities, but not in the eyes of God.