The Pauline privilege ( la, privilegium Paulinum) is the allowance by the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
of the
dissolution of marriage of two persons not
baptized at the time the marriage occurred.
The Pauline privilege is drawn from the
apostle Paul's instructions in the
First Epistle to the Corinthians.
Origin
The Pauline privilege is the allowance by the Church of the
dissolution of marriage of two persons not
baptized at the time the marriage occurred.
1 Corinthians 7
1 Corinthians 7 is the seventh chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle and Sosthenes in Ephesus. In this chapter, Paul replies to certain questions raised by t ...
:10–15 states:
To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) --and that the husband should not divorce his wife. To the rest I say, not the Lord, that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. 15 But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace."
The first section, "not I but the Lord", roughly matches
Jesus
Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...
' teaching on divorce, found in an
antithesis (
Matthew 5:32) with parallels in
Matthew 19:9,
Luke 16
Luke 16 is the sixteenth chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the teachings and parables of Jesus Christ, including the famous parable of the " rich man and Lazarus".Halley, Henry H. ''Halley's Bib ...
:18, and
Mark 10
Mark 10 is the tenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It presents further teachings of Jesus as his journey progresses towards Jerusalem.
Text
The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter ...
:11. The second section, "I say, not the Lord", gives Paul's own teaching on divorce, and was initiated to address a serious pastoral problem in the Church in Corinth where problems apparently developed in marriages between believers and unbelievers. Therefore, in instances where the unbaptized spouse left the newly baptized spouse, Paul allowed the latter to enter into a new marriage.
[
In the ]Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and in some Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
denominations this is interpreted as allowing the dissolution of a marriage
Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...
between two non-baptized persons in the case that one (but not both) of the partners seeks baptism and converts to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is the religious conversion of a previously non-Christian person to Christianity. Different Christian denominations may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies initiation into their community of believe ...
and the other partner leaves the marriage. Assuming it is established that both spouses were un-baptized at the time of their marriage, and subsequently obtained a civil divorce, should the now baptized party wish to enter into a sacramental marriage, the Pauline Privilege ("in favor of the faith") takes place ''ipso facto'' at the time of that marriage.
In the Latin Church
, native_name_lang = la
, image = San Giovanni in Laterano - Rome.jpg
, imagewidth = 250px
, alt = Façade of the Archbasilica of St. John in Lateran
, caption = Archbasilica of Saint Joh ...
, the subject is covered in canons 1143–1147 and can be handled on the diocesan level. For the Eastern Catholic Churches
The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of t ...
the applicable canons are found in the ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches
The ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'' (CCEC; la, Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium, abbreviated CCEO) is the title of the 1990 codification of the common portions of the canon law for the 23 Eastern Catholic Churches in the Catholic ...
'', canons 854–858.
According to the Catholic Church's canon law, the Pauline privilege does not apply when either of the partners was a Christian at the time of marriage. It differs from annulment
Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning al ...
because it dissolves a valid natural (but not sacramental) marriage whereas an annulment declares that a marriage was invalid from the beginning."Invocation of the Pauline Privilege", Roman Catholic Diocese of Hawaii
/ref>
The related Petrine privilege, which also allows remarriage after divorce, may be invoked if only one of the partners was baptized at the time of the first marriage.
See also
* Christian views on divorce
* Pauline Christianity
Pauline Christianity or Pauline theology (also Paulism or Paulanity), otherwise referred to as Gentile Christianity, is the theology and form of Christianity which developed from the beliefs and doctrines espoused by the Hellenistic-Jewish Ap ...
References
{{Reflist
External links
Code of Canon Law, Chapter IX, The Separation of Spouses
* ttp://www.newadvent.org/library/almanac_thisrock93.htm A Catholic explanation of the Pauline Privilege
Marriage in Christianity
Biblical law
Catholic matrimonial canon law
Pauline Christianity
Bible-related controversies
Christian terminology
First Epistle to the Corinthians
Christian ethics in the Bible