Church teaching states,
        Canon 1141.   A marriage which is ratified and consummated cannot be dissolved by any human power or by any cause other than death.
        Can. 1151.  Spouses have the obligation and the right to maintain their common conjugal life, unless a lawful reason excuses them.
        Can. 1153 §1. A spouse who occasions grave danger of soul or body to the other spouse or the children, or otherwise makes the common life unduly difficult, provides the other spouse with a lawful reason to leave, either by decree of the local Ordinary or, if there is danger in delay, even on his or her own authority.
        Can. 1153 §2.  In all cases, when the cause for the separation ceases, conjugal living must be restored unless ecclesiastical authority has established otherwise.

Church teaching states,
        CCC 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."
        CCC 2383. The separation of spouses while maintaining the marriage bond can be legitimate in certain cases provided for by canon law. Cf. CIC, canon. 1151-1155.
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.
        CCC 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.
        CCC 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.

Church teaching states,
        Canon 1060.  Marriage enjoys the favor of law. Consequently, in doubt the validity of a marriage must be upheld until the contrary is proven.

Church teaching states,
        CCC 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.

Church teaching states,
        from Pontifical Council for the Family;  "What is needed then is for human societies, and the families who live within them, often in a context of struggle between the civilization of love and its opposites, to seek their solid foundation in a correct vision of man and of everything which determines the full "realization" of his humanity. Opposed to the civilization of love is certainly the phenomenon of so-called "free love"; this is particularly dangerous because it is usually suggested as a way of following one's "real" feelings, but it is in fact destructive of love. How many families have been ruined because of "free love"! To follow in every instance a ‘real’ emotional impulse by invoking a love "liberated" from all conditionings, means nothing more than to make the individual a slave to those human instincts which Saint Thomas calls "passions of the soul". "Free love" exploits human weaknesses; it gives them a certain "veneer" of respectability with the help of seduction and the blessing of public opinion. In this way there is an attempt to "soothe" consciences by creating a "moral alibi". But not all of the consequences are taken into consideration, especially when the ones who end up paying are, apart from the other spouse, the children, deprived of a father or mother and condemned to be in fact orphans of living parents.
        "Being rooted in the personal and total self-giving of the couple, and being required by the good of the children, the indissolubility of marriage finds its ultimate truth in the plan that God has manifested in His revelation: He wills and He communicates the indissolubility of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a requirement of the absolutely faithful love that God has for man and that the Lord Jesus has for the Church."         (Pontifical Council for the Family, Jubilee of Families, October 14-15, 2000, Themes for reflection and dialogue in preparation for the third world meeting of the Holy Father with families, "Children, Springtime of the Family and Society", item 9 "Children, Orphans of Living Parents";    http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/family/documents/rc_pc_family_doc_20001014_rome-jubilee-of-families-preparatory-texts_en.html  )

PSYCHOLOGICAL REASONS FOR ANNULMENT
Church Teaching states,
        Canon 1060.  Marriage enjoys the favor of law. Consequently, in doubt the validity of a marriage must be upheld until the contrary is proven.

Church teaching publicized,
        "This morning, the dean, judges, promoters of justice, defenders of the bond, officials and attorneys of the Roman Rota, were received by the Pope on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year.
        " 'The tendency to increase the number of annulments through manipulation, forgetting the perspective of objective truth, implies a structural distortion of the entire process. The fundamental dimension of the justice of marriage which bases its existence on a intrinsically juridical reality, is substituted by empirical theories which are sociological, psychological in nature, etc, as well as by different ways of juridical positivism.' "        (The Pope to Roman Rota:  Presumption of the validity of marriage. Vatican City, Jan. 29, 2004 Vatican Information Service;  http://www.ewtn.com/vnews/getstory.asp?number=43327  )

Church teaching publicized
        "However, sources in Rome report that the pontiff has this week placed his firm backing behind the present system in a move clearly calculated to protect the Sacrament of Marriage. ...
        "As the rules currently stand, there have to be serious grounds for a Catholic to be granted an annulment.
        "These can include one party being forced to marry; the decision by one party, from the beginning, to exclude having children; the non-acceptance of the indissolubility of marriage by one party; the imposition of certain conditions when entering marriage which are against the essence of marriage; or the concealment of grave defects such as permanent impotency before the marriage."        (The Universe; the most popular Catholic newspaper in the UK and Ireland, News Archives, January 26, 2004, Pope’s hard line on annulments;  http://www.totalcatholic.com/ )

Church teaching states,
        from the Holy Father, "5. Then what can one say to the argument which holds that the failure of conjugal life implies the invalidity of the marriage? Unfortunately, this erroneous assertion is sometimes so forceful as to become a generalized prejudice that leads people to seek grounds for nullity as a merely formal justification of a pronouncement that is actually based on the empirical factor of matrimonial failure. This unjust formalism of those who are opposed to the traditional favor matrimonii can lead them to forget that, in accordance with human experience marked by sin, a valid marriage can fail because of the spouses' own misuse of freedom.
        "Admission of true nullities should rather lead to ascertaining with greater seriousness at the time of the marriage the necessary prerequisites for matrimony, especially those concerning the consent and true disposition of the engaged couple. Parish priests and those who work with them in this area have the grave duty not to surrender to a purely bureaucratic view of the pre-matrimonial examination of the parties, specified in can. 1067. Their pastoral intervention must be dictated by awareness that at precisely that moment, people are able to discover the natural and supernatural good of marriage and consequently commit themselves to pursuing it."        (Address of John Paul II to the Members of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota for the Inauguration of the Judicial Year, Thursday, 29 January 2004; http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2004/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20040129_roman-rota_en.html  )

       Vatican II.  "That discernment in matters of faith is aroused and sustained by the Spirit of truth. It is exercised under the guidance of the sacred teaching authority, in faithful and respectful obedience to which the people of God accepts that which is not just the word of men but truly the word of God."  (Lumen Gentium, no. 12, paragraph 2)
        "The laity should, as all Christians, promptly accept in Christian obedience decisions of their spiritual shepherds, since they are representatives of Christ as well as teachers and rulers in the Church."  (Lumen Gentium, no. 37, paragraph 2;  http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html  )

OBLIGATIONS TOWARD MAGISTERIUM
Church teaching states,
        CCC 1269. Having become a member of the Church, the person baptized belongs no longer to himself, but to him who died and rose for us. From now on, he is called to be subject to others, to serve them in the communion of the Church, and to "obey and submit" to the Church's leaders, holding them in respect and affection.
        CCC 1785. In the formation of conscience the Word of God is the light for our path, we must assimilate it in faith and prayer and put it into practice. We must also examine our conscience before the Lord's Cross. We are assisted by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, aided by the witness or advice of others and guided by the authoritative teaching of the Church.
        CCC 1790.  IV. Erroneous Judgment.  A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.
        CCC 1791. This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man "takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin."  In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.
        CCC 1792. Ignorance of Christ and his Gospel, bad example given by others, enslavement to one's passions, assertion of a mistaken notion of autonomy of conscience, rejection of the Church's authority and her teaching, lack of conversion and of charity: these can be at the source of errors of judgment in moral conduct.
        CCC 1793.  If - on the contrary - the ignorance is invincible, or the moral subject is not responsible for his erroneous judgment, the evil committed by the person cannot be imputed to him. It remains no less an evil, a privation, a disorder. One must therefore work to correct the errors of moral conscience.
        CCC 1794.  A good and pure conscience is enlightened by true faith, for charity proceeds at the same time "from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith.   "The more a correct conscience prevails, the more do persons and groups turn aside from blind choice and try to be guided by objective standards of moral conduct" (note GS 16).

Church teaching states,
        Canon 212 §1. Christ's faithful, conscious of their own responsibility, are bound to show Christian obedience to what the sacred Pastors, who represent Christ, declare as teachers of the faith and prescribe as rulers of the Church.

DISSENT
        CCC 85, The task of giving an authentic interpretation of the Word of God, whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the Church alone. Its authority in this matter is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ.” This means that the task of interpretation has been entrusted to the bishops in communion with the successor of Peter, the Bishop of Rome.
        CCC 2271. Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law: You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
        CCC 2322. From its conception, the child has the right to life. Direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, is a “criminal" practice (GS 27 § 3), gravely contrary to the moral law. The Church imposes the canonical penalty of excommunication for this crime against human life.
        CCC 2396. Among the sins gravely contrary to chastity are masturbation, fornication, pornography, and homosexual practices.
        CCC 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).
        CCC 2400. Adultery, divorce, polygamy, and free union are grave offenses against the dignity of marriage.
 

DIVORCE
Church teaching is states,
        from the Pope, "Today's strongly secularized mentality tends to affirm the human values of the institution of the family while detaching them from religious values and proclaiming them as fully independent of God. Influenced as it is by models of life that are too often presented by the mass-media, today's mentality asks, 'Why must one spouse always be faithful to the other?' and this question is transformed into an existential doubt in situations of crisis. Marital difficulties can take various forms, but in the end they all amount to a problem of love. For this reason, the preceding question can be reformulated in this way:  why it is always necessary to love the other spouse even when so many apparently justifying reasons, would lead one to leave?
        "Many replies can be given; among them the very powerful ones are the good of the children and the good of the entire society, but the most fundamental reply comes through the recognition of the objectivity of being spouses, seen as a reciprocal gift, made possible and guaranteed by God himself. The ultimate reason, therefore, for the duty of faithful love is none other than what is the basis of the divine covenant with the human person: God is faithful. To make possible the fidelity of heart to one's spouse, even in the hardest cases, one must have recourse to God in the certainty of receiving assistance. The way of mutual fidelity passes, moreover, through an openness to Christ's charity, which 'bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things' (I Cor 13,7). In every marriage the mystery of redemption becomes present, brought about by a real participation in the Cross of the Saviour, accepting the Christian paradox that joins happiness with the bearing of suffering in the spirit of faith."     (Address of John Paul  II to the Prelate Auditors, Officials and Advocates of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, January 30, 2003; Section 5 paragraph 2;  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2003/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20030130_roman-rota_en.html )

 FRATERNAL CORRECTION
Church teaching is states
        "CCC 1435 Conversion is accomplished in daily life by . . . the exercise and defense of justice and right, by the admission of faults to one's brethren, fraternal correction, revision of life, examination of conscience, spiritual direction, acceptance of suffering, endurance of persecution for the sake of righteousness. Taking up one's cross each day and following Jesus is the surest way of penance.
        "CCC 1829 The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy; charity demands beneficence and fraternal correction;  . . ."

Church teaching is states,
        from the Congregation for the Clergy, "the teaching of Christ on community life, recounted in the Gospel of St Matthew, calls for attitudes which it is for catechesis to inculcate: the spirit of simplicity and humility ("unless you turn and become like little children..." Mt 18,3); solicitude for the least among the brethren ("but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin..." Mt 18,6); particular care for those who are alienated ("Go and search of the one that went astray..." Mt 18,12); fraternal correction ("Go and tell him his fault..." Mt 18,15); . . . "        (Congregation for the Clergy, General Directory for Catechisis, From the Vatican, 15 August 1997, Education for Community Life, paragraph 86 a;  http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cclergy/documents/rc_con_ccatheduc_doc_17041998_directory-for-catechesis_en.html  )

ANNULMENT
Church teaching states,
        from the Pope, "One cannot give in to the divorce mentality: confidence in the natural and supernatural gifts of God to man prevents that. Pastoral activity must support and promote indissolubility. The doctrinal aspects should be transmitted, clarified and defended, but even more important are consistent actions. Whenever a couple is going through difficulties, the sympathy of Pastors, and of the other faithful must be combined with clarity and fortitude in remembering that conjugal love is the way to work out a positive solution to their crisis. Given that God has united them by means of an indissoluble bond, the husband and wife by utilizing all their human resources, together with good will, and by, above all, confiding in the assistance of divine grace, can and should emerge from their moments of crisis renewed and strengthened. . . .
        "At times, in recent years some have opposed the traditional "favor matrimonii" in the name of a "favor libertatis" or "favor personae". In this dialectic it is obvious that the basic theme is that of indissolubility, but the antithesis is even more radical with regard to the truth about marriage itself, more or less openly relativized. Against the truth of a conjugal bond, it is not right to invoke the freedom of the contracting parties, who, in freely consenting to that bond, were bound to respect the objective demands of the reality of marriage that cannot be altered in the name of human freedom. Judicial activity must therefore be inspired by a "favor indissolubilitatis"; that clearly does not mean prejudice against just declarations of nullity, but an active conviction of the good at stake in the processes, together with the ever renewed optimism that derives from the natural character of marriage and from the support of the Lord for the spouses."        ( Address of John Paul II to the Prelate Auditors, Officials and Advocates of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota,  January 28, 2002, Section 5, paragraph 2; and Section 7, paragraph 3;  http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/2002/january/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_20020128_roman-rota_en.html  )

Church teachings,
        as addresses from the Pope to the Tribunal of the Roman Rota are all are available on the internet. http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/speeches/index_spe-roman-rota.htm

Church teachings,
        CCC 1415 Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.
        CCC 1395 By the same charity that it enkindles in us, the Eucharist preserves us from future mortal sins. ...  The Eucharist is not ordered to the forgiveness of mortal sins - that is proper to the sacrament of Reconciliation. The Eucharist is properly the sacrament of those who are in full communion with the Church."
        CCC 1857 "For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."
        CCC 1859 Mortal sin requires full knowledge and complete consent. It presupposes knowledge of the sinful character of the act, of its opposition to God's law. It also implies a consent sufficiently deliberate to be a personal choice. Feigned ignorance and hardness of heart do not diminish, but rather increase, the voluntary character of a sin.
        CCC 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.
        CCC 1430 IV. INTERIOR PENANCE Jesus' call to conversion and penance, ..., does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.
        CCC 1431 Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. ....
        CCC 1451 Contrition.  Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again."
        CCC 1457 Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, ...
        CCC 1459 Satisfaction. Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm ... Simple justice requires as much.
        CCC 1466 The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ.  He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior, experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, ...
        CCC 2120 Sacrilege consists in profaning or treating unworthily the sacraments and other liturgical actions, as well as persons, things, or places consecrated to God. Sacrilege is a grave sin especially when committed against the Eucharist, for in this sacrament the true Body of Christ is made substantially present for us.