"...the Church would much prefer that people work it out."
Of course. But at the point that annulments are being sought, the Church really doesn't have much of a chance to encourage that, does she? By this point, the person seeking the annulment has decided that he/she wants to remarry, and probably has the person picked out.
And of course abortion is a sin. But does the fact that the a Catholic woman can step into a confessional, confess that sin, receive absolution, do penance, and eventally return to receiving communion mean that the Catholic Church has approved of abortion? Of course not.
A better comparison would be if the Catholic woman got an abortion, went to the priest, and made her case her understanding of it was imperfect at the time because of the influence of the surrounding world. And then the Catholic priest, instead of giving a penance and giving absolution, makes the decision (perhaps with the help of a Tribunal) that actually no abortion had *really* ever taken place.
We don't need to kick this dead horse much more. I didn't feel that you were attacking Orthodox practice, and I'm not attacking the idealism of Catholic practice.
Orthodoxy and Catholicism both hold up the same ideal (and as I said before, if anything, the Orthodox ideal is more stringent, since it discourages any remarriage whatsoever.) The way we convey the ideal and deal with the realities of life is simply quite different. We do it by holding our clergy to the highest standard as an example to the laity, by educating the laity on what the Church expects, and by dealing with the fallout of a fallen world and of people who have fallen away from the Church in the ways that I have described.
Catholicism requires the strict ideal of everyone, and deals with the same fallout by finding ways to explain that these marriages were never really marriages in the first place.
Traditional Catholics view the Orthodox approach as being one that gives approval or license to the sin of divorce.
Orthodox tend to see the Catholic approach as verging on a dishonesty made necessary by a legalistic approach to the matter.
But then, that is much of our disagreement in a nutshell, isn't it? The lack of centralization, codification, consistency, etc. in Orthodoxy drives Catholics crazy. Catholic juridical approaches to the faith drive us crazy. Fortunately, we are both happy where we are.
Regards,
A
Our Churches formed in different cultures and backgrounds. It is not surprising that one focuses on one thing, and the other focuses on something else. Neither of us has the perfect answer - life is not black and white. People approach the faith differently, and I don't think either is necessary wrong, just different. Thus, I don't like to criticize the Orthodox for their stance regarding divorce. I don't see it as a dogmatic teaching of the faith. Perhaps estabishing an ideal, that in practical terms will fail, sets us Catholics up for the potential that appears that we are dismissing that a sin has occured. But this is what our Church has taught and continues to teach. It is OUR expression of coming to God, to move towards the ideal, just as the Orthodox have their own particular expressions. Thanks for your insight on this issue. You have presented me an interesting point of view regarding annulment.
Regards