Let me recapitulate so far, because the rest of the book is different. The quest or the adventure was to recreate between humans a replica of the indwelling, which is supposed to exist between God and the soul. Union between man and woman, within the parameters of marriage, was the obvious place for this holy grail to be found. Marriage is of all subjects one about which the Church should know. How was it then, that the writers of the Report “Putting Asunder” so completely missed the mark?

Clausewitz says that the greatest mistake you can make in war is to imagine that its nature is different from what it actually is. To be strictly accurate he said this: “The first, the grandest, the most decisive act of judgment which the Statesmen and General exercises is rightly to understand the War in which he engages, not to take it for something, to wish to make it something, which by the nature of its relations it is impossible for it to be”. I am sure it is true of litigation, and probably true of every human activity where the stakes are high. I suspect it is true of marriage: talking about it, legislating for it, and even living through it. The most important mistake to avoid is of confusing marriage with concubinage. Most people would say that marriages are meant…