Traditional Catholic marriage doctrine is under a good deal of pressure these days, and much of the pressure seems to come from canonists. It is not surprising that this should be the case. The ideal of Christian lovers giving themselves to one another irrevocably, and living out their commitment, with God's help, until death has lost none of its attractiveness. But as the canonists reflect on what they are doing, they become increasingly disturbed by their inability to offer a practical way out to people who have signally failed to implement the ideal in their lives.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that their pressure on the traditional teaching is misplaced. In many cases, and those the most appealing, the canonists' difficulties are of their own making, and could be resolved not by changing the church's official teaching, but by bringing a more sophisticated legal analysis to bear on it. My purpose in this article is to develop such an analysis and to consider what options if offers the canon law for dealing with the usual hardship cases without departing from traditional Catholic marriage doctrine.