Norwich bulletin., 1916-02-14
NO DIVORCE POSSIBLE
Even to King or Emperor in the
 Roman Catholic chureh-Sermon by Rev. Peter J. Cuny at St. Patrick's.


 What, therefore, God hath joined to-
 gether let not man put asunder," Matt ! xix. 6, was the text of the second in i the series of sermons on the sacrament | of matrimony, preached in St. Pat
 rick's church Sunday at the high mass by Rev. Peter J. Cuny. From the viewpoint of the Roman Catholic, the sacrament of matrimony is a contract ] which only death can break There l may be times when, because of grave | faults on the part of husband or wife, l the church may tolerate temporary | separation. In rare cases. when it has been proven that impediments ex- ] isted, or pre-eXisted, the marriage 1 will be declared null and void-as [ though no marriage mad ever taken 1 place. But in ordinary cases no court, l no power, not even the authority of | the supreme pontiff himself, can break 1 the marriage contract validly made and consummated; and there must be
 no other marriage while either party l lives.
 This great principle applies to the | highest and lowest in the church. ] When Napoleon sought to divorce the
 Empress Josephine, Pope Plus VII met | his petition with the unvarying reply: .'No divorce!" The pope was exiled
 for five years, from 1909 to 1914, but it
 made no matter; the principle was not 1 changed.
 What, the preacher asked, was the cause of the separation of the Church of England from the Church of Rome :? Volumes have been written in expla- | nation of it, but in a nutshell it sim ply meant that the head of the church refused to grant King Henry VIII per mission to divorce Catherine of Ara | gon. Up to that time Henry had been | a deVout Catholic, learned king, who | had written much in defense of the | church. The pope could foresee that, | in refusing the king authority to put | away his queen, 1t would mean the | loss of an entire nation to the Church | of Rome; but there could be no change i in the ruling of the Catholic church l on this point. Again the reply was: l NO divorce!"
 1 When a Catholic marries he knows | that the contract is binding for life. l If he even attempt a divorce he is ex- 1 communicated. In case he secure di- | vorce papers they are of no more use 1 than waste paper. Emphasizing, then, | the seriousness of the marriage con- | tract, the church makes every effort | to be sure of her ground, before a man | and woman are joined in matrimony. | There Is careful preliminary investi-
 cations. the banns of marriage are 1 published, everything is done to en- ! able each party to the contract to l know something of the other, before | the decisive step is taken. l Love at first sight may do for fic- 1 tion, or for the movies, but the Cath | ollie church invests the sacrament of | marriage with a seriousness which l impresses upon men and women the conVition that only the graces of the l sacrament will enable them to live to-
 gether in happiness, bearing with the 1 inevitable imperfectiOnS of each. To | those who might be unhappy in the | marriage state, the preacher urged the l Representation of the sacraments of 1 penance and holy eucharist assuring | them that through these God would grant them that patience and forbear- l ance so necessary to render married
 life serene and happy.
 The evils of divorce are too well | known, even to those states which | grant 1t so readily-the breaking up of the home, the separation of children l from one parent or the other, perhaps | from both, possibly to be sent to some institution.
 1 Again, the possibility of easy divorce l tends to make men lose that restraint l that the marriage contract is binding | during life.
 | It is a sad fact, the preacher said,
 that while the nation standing highest
 in divorce Is heather Japan, rapidly 1 swinging toward materialism, the | United States, which calls itself a Christian nation, stands second, de-
 plorable evidence of the drift toward matertal1sm Tn this country. 1 The mills of the gods grind slowly, l though surely, and the Great Spirit is watching His children, eventually to ! shape their destinies in accord with | His will, even as now He is shaping
 events in the warning nations of the | world.
 1 The speaker forecasted the time
 when the Almighty. in His power and 1 justice, must bring man back to a
 realization of a life more pleasing to
 His will; when the ideal of men shall l again be the home, with one man and | one woman, who shall have children
 and shall educate them to perpetuate l that same ideal of the sanctity of fam | fly life, of marriage, as a holy union
 which finds it's prototype in that union | which exists between Christ and His | church.