Free The Greatest Evil by William X. Kienzle

“That’s rather open-minded of the Church.”
    “But it doesn’t work to your advantage, Frank.”
    “How’s that?”
    “Take your first marriage. The Church accepts that ceremony, no matter how it was performed—as long as whoever performed it was recognized by the state of Michigan—as a valid—real—marriage. That means that, in the eyes of the Church, before you can marry again you must prove that the first marriage is null. That for some specific reason—and there are only a few reasons the Church will consider—an impediment—a block—obstructed the validity of that marriage.”
    “These ‘specific reasons,’ Father: What are they?” Martha asked.
    “First, Martha: Are you sure you want to sit in on this?” Koesler asked. “It can get a bit … personal.”
    “I want to be here.”
    “I want her here,” Frank affirmed.
    “Okay.” Koesler nodded. “Now, a lot of these impediments are quite obviously not applicable here. Holy Orders, for instance, is a serious impediment.”
    “You mean—” Martha began.
    “That because I am a priest, I may not marry. But …” He thought for a moment. “Okay, maybe I can explain it this way: Suppose I get married. And suppose later on, I get divorced. After which, my ex-wife wants to marry someone else in a Catholic ceremony. The Church starts out by presuming that a marriage exists. Now, my ex-wife has to prove to the Church’s satisfaction that our union—well, that it was not a marriage—in other words, that no marriage existed. So she proves that at the time of our marriage ceremony, I was a priest. The Church would immediately grant her an annulment. Because in the eyes of the Church, there was no marriage between me and that woman—because, as a priest validly ordained by the Catholic Church, I am not, in the eyes of that Church, allowed to marry. Therefore, she, in effect, never married, so she is free to marry.
    “Now, that’s what we want to find in your marriage to—what is her name?”
    “Mildred. Do you need her maiden name?”
    “No …” Koesler smiled. “I was just getting tired of referring to her as ‘that woman.’”
    Koesler then began to tick off various possible impediments: consanguinity—if she were a close relative; if she refused to have children; if she were previously married; etc.
    It reminded Frank of the questions asked before some medical procedure. Have you ever had mumps, measles, whooping cough, etc.?
    To both series of questions, Frank’s answer would be, No. He’d had—oddly—no childhood diseases, nor had his first marriage involved any of the possible impediments Koesler mentioned. “No,” he said aloud.
    Questionnaire concluded, Koesler said, “I was afraid of that.” Noting their disappointment, he added, “But we’re not done.
    “Frank, what was there about your marriage to Mildred that didn’t work? In your own words, what made the marriage fail?”
    “That’s a pretty big question, Father.” He thought for some time. Finally, he said, “Incompatibility … incompatibility that started early on and just got worse. We were great in bed”—his face reddened but he went on—“but after that, in just about everything else, the two of us could have been living on different planets.”
    “Did you have any children?”
    “No. Neither of us wanted kids. The way things turned out it was a lucky break we didn’t have any—say, Father: Could that be one of those impediments? I know the Church doesn’t look too kindly on birth control …”
    “’Fraid not, Frank. Now, was there anything the two of you differed on or argued about a lot?”
    Frank pondered. “Seems religion came up every so often,” he said slowly.
    “Religion? What about religion?”
    “Mildred was Lutheran. She was pretty strong about it. She was always after me to join her church. She was really sore because I refused to be baptized—”
    “Wait a minute …” Koesler sat up straight. “She wanted you to be