We just sent a canonical petition to Bishop Richard G. Lennon of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland OH inviting him to provide a definitive Church decree regarding the status of professed Catholic divorce lawyers and court psychologists. These divorce practitioners provide the service of mutilating families. They take from innocent children their natural right to be raised in an intact home with Mom and Dad both contributing to the children’s upbringing in one home.
Our Catholic spiritual shepherd can clarify the difference between no-fault divorce, in contrast to the morally licit practice of separation of spouses. No-fault divorce is used to break families apart whenever one spouse requests it. The purpose of the moral practice of separation of spouses is to promote justice and to protect innocent children and reliable spouses. The bishop could teach the Catholic divorce lawyers the limited morally licit reasons for marital separation, about which they seem to be ignorant.
See the petition here: http://www.marysadvocates.org/eventsnews/100731lennonFAMAD.html
Michael McManus, the founder of the national organization Marriage Savers, joined our petition. He recently wrote a book about no-fault divorce and has volunteered to be an expert witness in any Church investigation. Ray Erker, the president of Ohio Coalition for Fathers and Children, also signed our plea to Bishop Lennon. Erker has first hand experience as a defendant in a no-fault divorce wherein his children were virtually abducted by the courts and his wife, though there was no legitimate reason for separation of spouses.
In our petition to the Bishop, we allege that professed-Catholic divorce lawyers Heather Corso and John Ready are causing public scandal by leading dissatisfied spouses to believe that marital abandonment is morally acceptable. Heather Corso, attorney for an abandoning wife, is charged with virtually abducing a girl from her father who is a defendant in no-fault divorce. John Ready is charged with spreading misinformation; he says the Catholic Church has no objection to divorce.
Also accused are professed-Catholic Deborah Koricke (court psychologist) and the Catholic members of Cleveland’s divorce lawyers’ organization, The Center for Principled Family Advocacy. http://www.famad.com/ The center advertises for divorce mediators, some who are active Catholics serving as Eucharistic Ministers or on the Diocesan Council.
On The Center for Principled Family Advocacy website, it states, "Divorce mediators are specially trained facilitators who do not take sides." That statement is “simply not true” asserts Judy Parejko, author of Stolen Vows: The Illusion of No-Fault Divorce and the Rise of the American Divorce Industry. Parejko used to be a divorce mediator in Wisconsin and she says, “it is not true because they ARE taking sides: they are siding with the party that is pressing for the divorce. They force ‘mutual consent’ as a basis for their work - even if it's not there.”
Parejko, Catholic convert, explained in an interview, "the problem with divorce mediation is that the spouse that wants to preserve the marriage is essentially banned from discussing anything about that legal matter. True mediation would never impose such oppressive limits; the discussion would encompass all aspects of the problem.”
"When lawyers and other professionals hang out a shingle advertising 'Sensible Divorce Alternatives' they really mean this: You WILL be getting divorced - case closed. Are they engaging in deceptive practices? Obviously, one 'alternative' to divorce would be to resolve differences and 'stay married' but these professionals will not tolerate this type of discussion during their so-called mediation, nor do most of them have any skill in how to conduct such a discussion - if it were tolerated.”
Parejko says, "When only one of the spouses wants to divorce, the mediator is put into the role of the hired gun: to cajole and coerce the non-consenting spouse into a dissolution settlement agreement. Court mediators serve one purpose: to produce the paper-record showing that both spouses have consented to the divorce. The lawyer-mediators clearly understand their role and it goes back to who they really serve: the judges and the State - not the marriage or the family.”
We ask Bishop Lennon to correct professed-Catholic divorce practitioners who earn their living by coercing innocent spouses to sign agreements to break up their family into two households regardless of their being no morally licit reason for separation. The practitioners arrange the break-up of families by serving as plaintiffs’ lawyers in court. When there is a morally licit reason for separation, the lawyers coerce the innocent spouse to sign agreements in which the terms of the separation are unjust and disregard the lifelong rights of innocent spouse and children.
Quoted in our petition to Bishop Lennon is Pope John Paul II’s instruction to lawyers, “Lawyers, as independent professionals, should always decline the use of their profession for an end that is contrary to justice, as is divorce. They can only cooperate in this kind of activity when, in the intention of the client, it is not directed to the break-up of the marriage.”
We seek Bishop Lennon’s intervention and we cite canon law while asking him questions:
* Are these Catholic no-fault divorce practitioners, and marriage dissolution practitioners removing themselves from the communion of the Church?;
* Are they in grave manifest sin?; and
* Are they no longer in good standing with the Church so long as they practice this profession?
Link to letter to Bishop Lennon: http://www.marysadvocates.org/eventsnews/100731lennonFAMAD.html
Bai Macfarlane is the founder of Mary’s Advocates, a non-profit organization that works to strengthen and uphold marriage.
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