Should be easy is the point. Once the marriage bed was defiled by adultery, there is no more marriage. A covenant was broken, hence null and void. Yet must jump through idiotic bureaucratic hoops that are not Biblical at all and based on flimsy tradition/historiography where Catholic influence is completely separated from civil law to boot.
No, many marriages survive adultery, so although adultery might be a justification for divorce, it is not that cut and dried. It is not the act of adultery that ends the marriage, it is the response to that act that determines if the marriage survives or not. What if the cheating spouse is truly sorry and repentant, should the other spouse not be encouraged to forgive?
Also, is the adulterer free to remarry? If so, why would not a spouse who is tired of their marriage just purposefully cheat, or even just claim to have cheated so the marriage is then ended? What about the people who just don’t want to live together anymore and obtain divorces, are their marriages valid until someone commits adultery? Does that instantly invalidate their marriage? What if neither commits adultery after the divorce, can they validly marry again since the original marriage is still in force? As cumbersome as the Catholic system can be, if there is no structure, it seems like there can be a lot of putting asunder of things joined by God.
Catholic marriages are not completely separated from civil law, as I don’t believe you can marry in a Catholic church without a civil license, but the sacrament is not a part of civil law, which is why a civil divorce does not end a Catholic marriage. And anyone who chooses to marry in the Catholic Church is made aware of the ‘idiotic bureaucratic hoops’ beforehand. Otherwise they were not properly prepared for the marriage and their vows, taken in ignorance, would be null.
The hoops are worth the trouble when they bring a Catholic back into communion with their church.
Love,
O2