“The law approved by the Norwegian Parliament this summer on the commitment that spouses assume with marriage, and on the guarantee of their mutual freedom to divorce each other, does not meet with our agreement”: so says Bishop Georg Muller of Trondheim, in a statement in which he points out the problems that a decision of this kind would give rise to. “The declaration [asked of spouses] prescribes that they attest having freely entered into the matrimonial state and may equally freely abandon it, by seeking divorce. As far as the relations between the Norwegian Catholic Church and the State, it should be recalled that Catholic priests are civil servants as regards the civil effects of marriage and are therefore obliged to sign this declaration. But this [declaration] clearly contradicts the Catholic doctrine of marriage. So we are taking action at various levels. In the first place we have informed the Holy See of this decision that affects religious freedom. Although it may be noted that one of the reasons that induced MPs to approve this new law is to offer a chance to those foreigners, especially from some Asian countries such as Pakistan, whose marriages are arranged by their respective families, that does not mean that the law should remain as it is. Some Norwegian Catholic women have protested to the Government and Parliament, while we bishops are actively making contacts at the government level to explain the consequences at the doctrinal and practical level”. According to Bishop Muller, it is to be hoped that a political debate be opened on this law that he emphasises “has surprised even the members of the Lutheran Church, even though they do not have a canon law comparable to that of the Catholic Church”.
