One can see the truth about the Church's views on marriage best, by asking the question: “What use is this permanent irrefrangible bond of steel to the parties to a marriage?” And the answer seems to be, “No use at all” . For one thing, the parties do not have to fight to keep it alive, it is not something infinitely precious that husband and wife must preserve at all costs; because according to the Church it survives automatically even though the marriage according to the ordinary use of language has collapsed in ruins. Everything alive, everything precious because it is alive, whether tangible or intangible, can be destroyed, even if potentially it is immortal; but not apparently the marriage bond. That can only be destroyed by physical death, not even by any other sort of death. The Report frequently refers to “empty legal ties”, or “the marriage relationship being dead” in order to recommend the breakdown of marriage theory, see pages 37,38,50,53,61,67. To begin with the Report uses these terms when referring favourably to other people's views; the Report puts these expressions into the mouths of right-thinking members of the community with obvious approval. On page 50 however, the Report quite clearly makes these expressions its own; it refers to the Court finding that a marriage relationship is dead, and then the Report describes this as a finding of fact. In other words the Report envisages the marriage being dead in the sense of all affection being dead between the spouses, with nothing between them any more, with no prospect of reconciliation, and yet still the Church's immutable bond lives on. On page 49 it reiterates that the Court only dissolves legal rights and duties; it does not concern itself with any deeper bond; and then goes on to express the view that marriages are really indissoluble.
Let us consider how it works in practice. Mr. Smith and Miss Jones fall in love and marry. Or rather they thought they did, but when the infatuation wears off Mrs. Smith finds that though her husband is a staunch believer in the…