Marriage Issues: Happiness in Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage, Annulments, Contraception, Sex in Marriage, Adultery

The Mystery of Marriage is something all married people are called by God to experience and explore. And He provided in the Catholic Church all the many graces and helps that flow from the sacrament of Holy Matrimony as a means of assisting husbands and wives to love each other with a deep and holy love. As married people everywhere know, this calling is often not easy to pursue and, at times, it can be very difficult. But take heart. Even if your personal marital situation is difficult, even if you have experienced the pain of a divorce, or if you have been remarried and you want to know if you can still come home to the Catholic Church — no matter the problems — the Catholic Church wants to welcome you with open arms and many helpful resources that will enable you to fix problems in your marriage and find true peace and happiness that comes from the ability to forgive past hurts.

“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife,
and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:4)

“So they are no longer two but one flesh.
What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matt. 19:6).

I'm divorced and remarried. Can I come back?

Yes, you can definitely come home to the Catholic Church, but you may need to do some repair work along the way. The Catholic Church wants to welcome you home with open arms and the love of Christ.

The issue of divorce and remarriage is a painful and confusing one for many people these days, including many Catholics and former Catholics, and the Church is very eager to help them deal with this situation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church here explains the larger issue of the sacrament of holy matrimony as being a union of a man and a woman that cannot be broken or dissolved by anyone through divorce.

Continue reading more about the Church's teaching on divorce and remarriage and how, if you are divorced and remarried, you can begin the process of healing your relationship with God and the Church: What the Bible says about divorce and remarriage; a recent Vatican document dealing with the dignity of marriage, divorce, and annulments; U.S. Bishops on the importance of strong marriages; divorce; annulments; other marriage issues.

The easiest way to find out more is to contact your local parish and speak to the person who handles marriage annulments. Parish Finder

This section of Catholics Come Home will guide you to many resources that will help answer your questions, give you practical and specific things you can do to improve your marriage, and resolve marriage-related issues that may be standing in the way of (or which you may think are standing in the way of) your coming home to a full and vibrant marriage.

You may also have questions concerning Pornography, Homosexuality, and Gay Marriage. Catholics Come Home has provided information about these issues in: Catholic Ethics and Morality

“Absolutely every person, no matter how enmeshed in vice, ensnared by the allurements of pleasure, a captive in exile… fixed in mire… distracted by business, afflicted with sorrow… and counted with those who go down into hell—every soul, I say, standing thus under condemnation and without hope, has the power to turn and find it can not only breath the fresh air of the hope of pardon and mercy.” — St. Bernard of Clairvaux