For Gina Calogero, a Catholic and a divorce lawyer, the "sacred" aspect of a marriage has already dissolved by the time clients reach her Oradell office.
So, she and others say, Pope John Paul II's message to Catholic lawyers that they should not handle divorce cases is one that requires interpretation.
The pope's comments were made Monday at the beginning of the Roman judicial year and were delivered to the members of the Roman Rota, the church's court. Civil lawyers, the pope said, "must avoid being personally involved in what could imply a cooperation to divorce."
In North Jersey, responses to the pope's comments varied, as lawyers compared their own religious faith and professional ethics to church teaching.
Calogero doesn't see handling divorces as being in conflict with her faith because "the bond of marriage has been broken, perhaps through adultery or abuse or addiction long before they come to me."
"I also urge [clients] to seek reconciliation," she said, "and advise them to go to church."
The pope's references to civil lawyers and judges drew widespread attention around the world. The pontiff acknowledged that judges may not have the option of deciding which cases come before them. But lawyers, he said, "must always decline to use their profession to an end contrary to justice, such as divorce."
The nuance in the pontiff's words came near the end of his remarks, when he said that while lawyers must not use their profession to "justify" a divorce, lawyers could "collaborate" in divorce if the action is "in the intention of the client, not aimed to the breaking of marriage, but to other legitimate purposes."
Those other "legitimate purposes" would allow a Catholic lawyer to take part in a divorce case, said Chris Ferrara, an attorney with the Ramsey-based American Catholic Lawyers Association. The pope's words, Ferrara said, make use of another Catholic moral teaching: accepting one wrong for the sake of a greater good.
"A Catholic lawyer can tolerate a divorce if a party to the divorce has no other way to secure property rights," he said. So an abused woman, for example, would obtain a divorce to guarantee support for herself and protect her children.
But in such cases, Ferrara said, the lawyer must make sure that neither party to the divorce is seeking it to re-marry in the future.
Some Catholic lawyers argue that the times require a broader interpretation of the church's teachings on marriage.
Philip Puglisi, a Paramus attorney and a Catholic, handles divorces. "I've talked to priests and other lawyers about it," he said. "I know that the words of the Bible say divorce is not permitted, but they tell me that times have changed."
"I cannot see a loving God saying that two people who are miserable have to stay together if there's another solution," he said. "I have handled Catholics who get divorced, and I don't think any of them are happy about it."
Thomas Bernardo, a Woodbridge lawyer with degrees from Canisius College and Notre Dame Law School -- both Catholic institutions -- takes the narrower view and said he would be reluctant to handle divorce cases. "I see the world as a Catholic before I see it as a lawyer," he said.
Bernardo said he thinks a lot of Catholic lawyers "don't do their homework" when it comes to applying church teaching to their profession. "We just see divorce as part of our culture," he said, "without examining it from our faith perspective, and how the sacrament of marriage should be regarded."
Officials at the law school at Seton Hall University, a Catholic university, declined to comment because they had not read the pope's words.