Anglican

I am aware that Catholic dogma disallows both divorce and remarriage unless it is annulled by the Church.

Biblically, Jesus explains the conditions for divorce and possibly remarriage.

Jesus says in Matthew 19:

Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?" And He answered and said, "Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, `FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH'? "So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?"He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. "And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

This is a hotly debated verse for two reasons: 1. it is the only place Jesus allows for remarriage in all the gospels and 2. the word translated immorality is literally "pornea" which is either fornication before marriage or any type of sexual immorality during marriage including adultery. "Mochea" means adultery and it would have settled the issue quick but our Lord used a word which the writers translated into pornea and the debate continues.

Now, in church history, the early church (and I mean within 50 - 100 years after the resurrection and the giving of The Holy Spirit) the church was tough! Even widows could not remarry for the most part. That is unfortunate because Paul, the apostle distinctly allows for widows to remarry. But they understood from Paul's writing that marriage represented the union between Jesus and the church so it was highly regarded. In the early church, remarriage was completely disallowed even if the spouse committed adultery.

Nowhere does Paul (who covered the issue exclusively except for Jesus) allow for remarriage in my search of the Scripture. He does allow for divorce in the case of an unbelieving spouse leaving the marriage or adultery. But nowhere do I find remarriage in either case. "Until death do you part" meant the marriage contract lasted until one party died. Then the other is as free as a bird to marry anyone they want "but only in the Lord" says Paul, meaning, another Christian.

Here are all the other statement Jesus makes on the topic and he does not allow remarriage without adultery being committed:

Matthew 5:31ff

31 "It was said, `WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE'; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Mark 10:2ff

2 Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. 3 And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses permitted a man TO WRITE A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY." 5 But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6"But from the beginning of creation, God MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE. 7 "FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, 8 AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 "What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate." 10 In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. 11 And He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; 12 and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery."

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7:10ff

10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 12 But to the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 And a woman who has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, she must not send her husband away. 14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband; for otherwise your children are unclean, but now they are holy. 15 Yet if the unbelieving one leaves, let him leave; the brother or the sister is not under bondage in such cases, but God has called us to peace. 16 For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?

In summary, being human, knowing our weaknesses and the beauty of what marriage can be (though single myself) I must be merciful when giving counsel regarding divorce and remarriage. With eternity in mind, it may be most merciful to interpret Jesus' and Paul's instruction on divorce and remarriage as follows:

1. Stay married and do not divorce even if married to an unbeliever

2. You can divorce if the partner commits adultery or deserts you

3. You may not remarry till the partner dies.

SInce Jesus used the term "pornea" which can mean both fornicating before marriage or any sexual immorality during marriage, stay safe and do not remarry because:

First Corinthians 15:9

;

: "...do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God." and

Hebrews 13:4

:

: "Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge." (Verses taken from New American Standard Bible.)

To the best of my knowledge, the only country in Europe which broke away, as a Country, from the Catholic church, was England. I believe that Spain is still nominally Roman Catholic.