VATICAN CITY: The pope said Catholic civil lawyers must not take divorce cases if the client's intent is to break the marriage bond.

Speaking Jan. 28 to the Roman Rota, a Vatican tribunal that handles annulment appeals, the pope said the church must oppose divorce in society by promoting a "mentality, social custom and civil legislation in favor of indissolubility."

Pope John Paul said Catholic judges might find it impossible not to take divorce cases, but they "must find effective means to promote matrimonial unions, above all through a wisely conducted work of reconciliation."

But he said Catholic lawyers who are free to choose their cases "must always decline the use of their profession for an end that is counter to justice, like divorce."

"They can only collaborate in such an activity when it, in the client's intent, is not aimed at the breaking of the marriage, but to other legitimate effects," he said.

Pope John Paul called divorce a "plague" with devastating consequences for society and said the church unwaveringly must defend manage's permanence -- which he said was ordained by God -- and oppose alternative kinds of unions, like gay "marriages."

The comments set off a political firestorm in Italy, where memories are still fresh of the country's bruising 1974 referendum campaign that resulted in the legalization of divorce. The church was strongly opposed to legalization.