What Should I Do if My Spouse Is Abusive?

The Church does not forbid a civil divorce when it is sadly necessary to protect one or both of the parties. However, the Church does not recognize a civil divorce as ending the bond of marriage. Thus there is the necessity of an annulment, which determines that there was never a true marriage in the first place. The marriage bond can never be broken by a civil decree, and the Church annulment does not break the bond, it simply declares that the bond never actually existed morally.