Marriage Abandoner “Face of an Honest Man,” says Fr. Longenecker

Fr. Dwight Longenecker describes a spouse who wickedly abandons marriage.

“… what I’ve seen within marriage break-ups sometimes. The cold, calculated, planned cruelty, to someone who they vowed before God to love and cherish for the rest of their lives. The wickedness of it and the evil of it–which exists within our nice little suburbs–is just chilling.”

Aug. 1, 2020. section 1h.6m.24s HERE.

Listen to audio excerpts from Fr. Longenecker’s interview by Barbara McGuigan discussing his new book “Immortal Combat: Confronting The Heart Of Darkness.” In the book, he characterizes sin using mythical characters. Chapter six is “Geryon and the People of the Lie.” These people spend their energy purporting the lie that they are good people. They have mastered this act of self-deception, covering it up, and blaming someone else.

In my work upholding marriage, I correspond with divorce defendants who describe the hatred pointed at them by the abandoning spouse. The other spouse who is forcing divorce seems to care about appearing as a good Catholic. However, in these situations, I find that the spouse wanting the divorce refuses to cooperate with any experts recognized for helping couples strengthen their marriage. No-fault divorce enables these abandoners to further damage their family with no obligation to work on reconciling or make the other spouse or children whole. The Church disregards our own teaching and canon law  when it purports that the state Courts should decide everything about separation and divorce.

Fr. Longenecker knows Jesus can break the sin in the people of the lie, but if they refuse to turn away from their sin, they end up in Dante’s lowest circle of hell, just above Satan.