Over the centuries, Church leaders have grappled with the issue of
marriage and
divorce almost unlike any other issue - the
volume of theological writings could fill whole libraries. Certainly, the Church's opinion of
divorce has changed over time. The paper shows that, today there are one hundred and eleven canons (Church laws) addressing
marriage and divorce, but taken as a whole, they outline the Church's strict and fundamental view that divorce is forbidden because it breaks the sacrament of marriage. The paper explains that in the case of marital separation, only an annulment can legitimately separate two people, and even then, only on proper grounds.