An Orthodox Christian may divorce and marry again in church; a Catholic may not. Only one practice can be faithful to Christ.
Short answer: Yes. The Orthodox Churches permit divorced people to marry "a second and even a third time" by "economy" (oikonomia), with a penitential rite. The Catholic Church teaches that a valid sacramental marriage, once consummated, ends only with death, because Jesus said, "what God has joined together, no human being must separate." On this question, the Orthodox practice is not faithful to Christ; the Catholic Church is.
Key verses on marriage and divorce
- "what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Mark 10:9)
- "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her" (Mark 10:11)
- "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery" (Luke 16:18)
- "she must either remain single or become reconciled to her husband" (1 Corinthians 7:11)
- "the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15)
Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What the Orthodox Believe
The Orthodox do not call divorce good. The Orthodox Church in America says: "While the Church stands opposed to divorce, the Church, in its concern for the salvation of its people, does permit divorced individuals to marry a second and even a third time." The service "bears a penitential character," and "Second or third marriages are performed by “economy”—that is, out of concern for the spiritual well being of the parties involved and as an exception to the rule, so to speak."
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America sets the limit: no one may marry more than three times in the Church, and a third marriage is permitted only with extreme oikonomia. On the Archdiocese's website, Fr. Stanley Harakas writes that the Church grants ecclesiastical divorces "on the basis of the exception given by Christ to his general prohibition of the practice."
What Catholics Actually Teach
First, what we share. With the Orthodox Churches, "this communion is so profound 'that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist'" (CCC 838). This is a disagreement among brothers who share valid sacraments and much of the apostolic faith, in "a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church" (CCC 838).
On marriage: "The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it" (CCC 1614). "A marriage that is ratum et consummatum can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death" (canon 1141). And "the Church does not have the power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom" (CCC 1640).
What Catholics do not teach:
- That the divorced are outside the Church. The community must help them so "that they do not consider themselves separated from the Church" (CCC 1651).
- That every divorced person has sinned. A spouse can be "the innocent victim of a divorce decreed by civil law" (CCC 2386).
- That a declaration of nullity is a divorce. It declares "that the marriage never existed" (CCC 1629).
The Biblical Case
1. Jesus revoked Moses' concession
Asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?" Jesus said Moses allowed it "Because of the hardness of your hearts," then went back to "the beginning of creation": "So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate" (Mark 10:2–9). The NABRE note on Matthew's parallel says it plainly: "Moses’ concession to human sinfulness (the hardness of your hearts, Mt 19:8) is repudiated by Jesus" (Matthew 19:8–9). A remarriage blessed because of human weakness looks very much like the concession Jesus withdrew.
2. Jesus called remarriage after divorce adultery
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mark 10:11–12). "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery" (Luke 16:18). Matthew adds: "whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32). In every Gospel that records His teaching on divorce, Christ calls remarriage after divorce adultery, not a lesser marriage.
3. St. Paul handed on the Lord's command
"To the married, however, I give this instruction (not I, but the Lord): A wife should not separate from her husband—and if she does separate she must either remain single or become reconciled to her husband—and a husband should not divorce his wife" (1 Corinthians 7:10–11). Two options, not three. Only death frees: "A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives" (1 Corinthians 7:39; see Romans 7:2–3).
4. Marriage images Christ and His Church
"This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church" (Ephesians 5:31–32). Christ does not divorce His Bride and take another.
The Early Church Agrees
The earliest witnesses read the Gospels exactly as the Catholic Church does.
- The Shepherd of Hermas (Rome, c. AD 140, Commandment 4.1), on a husband whose wife persists in adultery: "The husband should put her away, and remain by himself. But if he put his wife away and marry another, he also commits adultery" (newadvent.org). Note the case: even with adultery proven, separation is allowed, remarriage is not.
- St. Justin Martyr (First Apology 15, c. AD 155), quoting Christ: "Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced from another husband, commits adultery," so "all who, by human law, are twice married, are in the eye of our Master sinners" (newadvent.org).
St. Basil the Great, a fourth-century bishop the Orthodox honor among their greatest saints, wrote canons they still cite:
- Letter 217, canon 77: "He who abandons the wife, lawfully united to him, is subject by the sentence of the Lord to the penalty of adultery."
- Letter 199, canon 48, on a wife whose husband has left her: "The woman who has been abandoned by her husband, ought, in my judgment, to remain as she is." His reason is Christ's own words in Matthew 5:32: "by calling her adulteress, He excludes her from intercourse with another man." Note who this is: not the guilty party, but the innocent, abandoned spouse. That is exactly the person Orthodox economy now permits to marry again.
St. Basil went further. Of a third marriage he wrote, "this is no longer described as marriage at all, but as polygamy" (Letter 188, canon IV). Orthodox churches today bless a third marriage in church, after divorce as well as after death. We do not cite this to bind anyone to St. Basil's fourth-century penances: the Catholic Church, with St. Paul, holds that a widow "is free to be married to whomever she wishes" (1 Corinthians 7:39), and St. Basil affirmed the same freedom (Letter 199, canon 41). We cite it because Orthodox Christians rightly appeal to the Fathers. A Father who would not call a third union after widowhood a marriage would not have blessed a third marriage after divorce.
The Catechism itself quotes St. Basil: "If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer" (CCC 2384).
The Pillar of Truth Cannot Bless What Christ Forbade
The Church is "the pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), and Jesus promised, "the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth" (John 16:13; see Is the Church the Pillar and Foundation of Truth?). So the true Church cannot permit what contradicts Christ's explicit words (Mark 10:9–12). A Church that blesses second and third marriages after divorce has, on this point, departed from them, however merciful its motives.
The Catholic Church has kept this truth at great cost. Pope Clement VII refused to annul Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Politics were tangled (Catherine's nephew was Emperor Charles V), but Rome did not give way. Henry had his own archbishop annul the marriage in 1533, and the Act of Supremacy (1534) recognized him as "Supreme Head of the Church of England." Rome lost England, and St. Thomas More was beheaded in 1535 for refusing to accept the king as head of the Church of England.
That costly consistency is one sign that the Church of Christ "subsists in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him" (Lumen Gentium 8; CCC 816). This concerns fullness, not a denial of Orthodox truth: "many elements of sanctification and of truth" exist beyond the Church's visible confines (CCC 819), and the Orthodox possess them richly (see What Is the Difference Between Catholic and Orthodox?).
Objections Answered
(a) "Christ Himself made an exception for sexual immorality."
At its strongest: Jesus says whoever divorces his wife "(unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery" (Matthew 19:9; see 5:32). Many translations render porneia "sexual immorality," and Fr. Harakas grounds Orthodox practice in "the exception given by Christ" (see above). If adultery shatters the one-flesh union, surely the innocent spouse is free.
Answer: The NABRE note explains that "the unlawfulness that Matthew gives as a reason why a marriage must be broken refers to a situation peculiar to his community: the violation of Mosaic law forbidding marriage between persons of certain blood and/or legal relationship (Lv 18:6–18). Marriages of that sort were regarded as incest (porneia)" (note on Matthew 5:31–32). Its conclusion: "In this interpretation, the clause constitutes no exception to the absolute prohibition of divorce when the marriage is lawful." The note admits some read it "as a modification of the absolute prohibition," but Mark, Luke, and the Lord's command as St. Paul hands it on (1 Corinthians 7:10–11) give no exception at all. Even the adultery reading would not cover "a broken and essentially nonexistent marriage" (Harakas), let alone a third marriage.
(b) "Oikonomia is mercy, and the Church can bind and loose."
At its strongest: Christ said, "whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). The rite is penitential, and permission is given "as an exception to the rule, so to speak." Must a deserted spouse be alone forever?
Answer: The power to loose is real, but not over what God Himself has joined: "no human being must separate" (Mark 10:9). Mercy forgives sin; it cannot make what Christ called adultery a blessed marriage. The Catholic Church shows mercy without contradicting Him: separation when living together "becomes practically impossible" (CCC 1649), care for the innocent spouse (CCC 2386), and examination of whether a marriage ever existed (CCC 1629).
(c) "St. Basil himself was lenient toward a deserted husband."
At its strongest: In Letter 188, canon IX, St. Basil writes: "But the man who has been abandoned is pardonable, and the woman who lives with such a man is not condemned." Orthodox writers see early oikonomia here.
Answer: The text is real. But the canon opens: "The sentence of the Lord that it is unlawful to withdraw from wedlock, save on account of fornication, ... applies, according to the argument, to men and women alike. Custom, however, does not so obtain." St. Basil sets "the sentence of the Lord" against "custom," and his leniency follows custom. Where he applies the Lord's sentence, he is strict (canon 77). He speaks of pardon, not of a church rite blessing a new marriage, and custom cannot outweigh "the sentence of the Lord" itself. He says the same of a deserted husband in Letter 199, canon 35: "Pardon will be given to him that he may communicate with the Church." Pardon for the abandoned is not a blessing on a new union.
(d) "Rome dissolves marriages too: the Pauline privilege. Isn't that oikonomia by another name?"
At its strongest: St. Paul writes, "If the unbeliever separates, however, let him separate. The brother or sister is not bound in such cases" (1 Corinthians 7:15). Catholic law uses this verse to dissolve some marriages (canon 1143). If the Catholic Church can loose a marriage bond for the sake of faith, why condemn the Orthodox for loosing one for the sake of mercy?
Answer: Read the text. St. Paul first repeats the Lord's command for Christian spouses, with no exception (1 Corinthians 7:10–11). Then he turns to a different case, which he marks off himself: "To the rest I say (not the Lord): if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever" (1 Corinthians 7:12). The privilege concerns a marriage contracted between two unbaptized persons, which was therefore never a sacrament. Canon law applies it to "A marriage entered into by two non-baptized persons" (canon 1143 §1). For the sacramental, consummated marriage of two Christians, the law is absolute: it "can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death" (canon 1141). The Orthodox practice blesses second and third marriages after the divorce of baptized spouses, which is exactly the case St. Paul says the Lord Himself has closed. One Church follows the line Scripture draws; the other crosses it.
Conclusion
On this question, the Orthodox practice is not faithful to Christ; the Catholic Church is. We say it plainly because Christ said it plainly, and with respect: the Orthodox intend mercy, and they have kept much of the apostolic faith through centuries of suffering.
If you are divorced, you are not forgotten: even the divorced and remarried are urged "to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass" and "to persevere in prayer" (CCC 1651). If you are Orthodox, consider: which Church kept Christ's word on marriage unchanged, even when it cost a kingdom?
Come home. Christ's words "what God has joined together, no human being must separate" are still kept without exception in the Catholic Church. You already possess true sacraments and much of the apostolic faith, in "a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church" (CCC 838). Those gifts draw their power "from the fullness of grace and truth that Christ has entrusted to the Catholic Church" and "are in themselves calls to 'Catholic unity'" (CCC 819). The Eucharist is the sacrament of the Church's unity, yet your true Eucharist is celebrated apart from the successor of St. Peter, on whom Christ built His Church (Matthew 16:18). We invite you into full communion with St. Peter's successor, the bishop of Rome, in the Catholic Church.
Your next step: Come to Mass or Divine Liturgy at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. When you're ready, call the parish office and ask to speak with the priest about entering full communion with the Catholic Church. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.
FAQ
Does the Catholic Church ever allow a second marriage? Yes: after a spouse's death (1 Corinthians 7:39), or after a tribunal declares that the first marriage "never existed" (CCC 1629). A sacramental, consummated marriage is never dissolved (canon 1141).
Isn't a Catholic annulment just an Orthodox divorce? No. Divorce claims to end a real marriage; a declaration of nullity judges that none was formed. See Isn't an Annulment Just Catholic Divorce?
Can a divorced and remarried Catholic receive Communion? The Catechism teaches that Catholics remarried civilly, when the first marriage was valid, "cannot receive Eucharistic communion as long as this situation persists," and that sacramental reconciliation requires repentance and a commitment "to living in complete continence" (CCC 1650). If this is your situation, talk with your pastor.
Sources
Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Mark 10:2–12; Matthew 5:31–32 and note; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18:18; Matthew 19:3–9 and note; Luke 16:18; John 16:13; Romans 7:2–3; 1 Corinthians 7:10–15, 39; Ephesians 5:31–32; 1 Timothy 3:15.
Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 819, 838; 1614; 1629; 1640; 1649–1651; 2384, 2386.
Church documents (vatican.va): Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium 8; Code of Canon Law, cann. 1141, 1143.
Orthodox sources: Orthodox Church in America, "Divorce and Remarriage"; Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, "Instructions for Weddings, Divorces, Baptisms, Funerals, and Memorials"; Stanley S. Harakas, "The Stand of the Orthodox Church on Controversial Issues" (goarch.org).
Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Shepherd of Hermas, Commandment 4; Justin Martyr, First Apology 15; Basil the Great, Letter 188; Letter 199; Letter 217.
History (Britannica): "Catherine of Aragon"; "Act of Supremacy"; "Thomas More".