Sir. May I address a genuine query to Fr Ingoldsby arising from his letter (April 8th)?
He asks for prayers so "that the evil of divorce may yet be averted (in Ireland)". Some time ago I attended a wedding in a Catholic church where the bride (a baptised Catholic) had previously married in a registry office, and subsequently divorced. She was the mother of three young children from her first marriage.
My query is this - if divorce is evil in the sight of the church why then does it authorise such marriages? Is it not condoning what it regards as evil by doing so? Or is it that the Catholic Church only regards divorce between those who underwent a Christian form of marriage as evil, while regarding all other forms of divorce as not being evil? - Yours, etc.,
Rochestown Avenue, Dun Laoghaire.
Co Dublin.