Divorce 

8/16 Jamouneau St,

Warracknabeal,

Vic 3393

To St Pat's Cathederal,
Melbourne
Australia.

May 17st, 2022

Dear Father,

I am the oldest of ten boys. We were all educated at the Jesuit Xavier College in Kew, Melbourne.  I am also related to Saint Mary McKillop. 

At one stage I was seriously thinking I would become a priest and attended Mass daily for quite some time.

However, I did marry in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne where my parents were married, too.

Unfortunately, my wife went on a holiday to see her brother who lived in Papua New Guinea and met a chap and came back pregnant.  

Naturally, we divorced and I was effectively thrown out of the Church.  I thought I was going to hell for years, and all sorts of other unimaginable thoughts.

That was some 50 years ago, and I have been disconnected from the Church since.

However, just a few weeks ago, a Jehovah’s Witness couple heard this, and referred me to Matthew 5:32  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_5:32

In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:

But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving

for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and

whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

The New International Version translates the passage as:

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual

immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries

a divorced woman commits adultery.

The New American Bible translates this passage as:

But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the

marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery,

and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

It seems that adultery is/was a perfectly valid reason for divorce, except that it was changed in 1563.

Major thinkers such as St. Augustine supporting adultery as the valid reason given in this verse for divorce.[7] However, at the Council of Trent in 1563 the indissolubility of marriage was added to the canon law. Since that day Catholic doctrine has been that divorce is unacceptable, but the separation of spouses can be permitted.

Father, why have I been subjected to 50 years of believing that Divorce was going to send me to hell forever?

And who changed the Bible?

Thank you,

Clem Clarke