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What does the Church say about divorce?translated

November 11, 2026 · 1 min read

Divorce remains one of the most pressing problems of modern society. Hundreds of thousands of marriages are dissolved in Russia every year. How does the Church treat divorces and in what cases does it allow the termination of a church marriage? Let's look at the slides from the Foma magazine.

1 What does the Gospel say about marriage and divorce? In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus Christ speaks quite definitely about marriage: For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man put asunder (Matthew 19:5-6). The words “he will cleave to his wife” speak of the deep unity of the spouses, which includes both physical and spiritual intimacy. Husband and wife become “one flesh.” By this, Christ emphasizes that marriage is intended to be a union for life.

In the same Gospel, when asked by the Pharisees whether it is possible to divorce one’s wife, Christ answers: whoever divorces his wife not for adultery and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Matthew 19:9). Thus, Christ speaks of the inadmissibility of arbitrary divorce and calls adultery the only basis on which divorce is possible.…

Source: Журнал ФОМА  ·  Read the full story →
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