The marriage covenant results from the free consent of the two parties concerned. This free consent constitutes the matter of the sacrament of Holy Matrimony. As in the case of all contracts, the existence of any untoward force or duress against any party renders the covenant null and void. Likewise, all actions, words, etc., which would lead to marital infidelity are equally prohibited for the husband and the wife. All possibility of divorce is excluded.
Divorce is destructive of the ends of marriage and opens the floodgates of immorality.
Hence it is clear that marriage even in the state of nature and certainly long before it was raised to the dignity of a sacrament , was divinely instituted in such a way that it should carry with it a perpetual and indissoluble bond which cannot therefore be dissolved by any civil law. In respect of the primary marital rights and obligations, husband and wife are equal. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. In fact if the husband neglect his duty, it falls to the wife to take his place in directing the family. But the structure of the family and its fundamental law, established and confirmed by God, must always and everywhere remain intact.