Pope Francis' catastrophic remarks of June 16, 2016 - Part I of Commentary.1. Pope Francis says that "great majority of sacramental marriages are null", but some cohabitations are real marriages.2. How Amoris Laetitia and Mitis Iudex paved the way for Francis' statement.3. Bergoglio welcomed his niece's defiance of Church teaching on marriage

In a short but already overheated papacy littered as no pontificate before with an avalanche of papal words, Francis' remarks during his Q & A on June 16, 2016 are surely among the worst that he has spoken. Our commentary is divided into two parts. This one is on his statements regarding sacramental marriages and cohabitation, and the antecedents for his statements in his previous teachings and actions. The second part will be about Francis' denunciation of the desire for precise doctrine and "rigidity" on divorce, remarriage and baptism.

[NC: One important editorial note. This morning, the Vatican released a transcript of the papal talk, scandalously tampering with what was really said by the Pope. What the Pope said, and was recorded, and is available on video here (starts at 1:14:20), was, "una grande maggioranza dei nostri matrimoni sacramentali sono nulli" ("a great majority of our Sacramental matrimonies are null"). The transcript released by the Vatican says, "una parte", "a part/portion", instead of "a great majority".]

I. What the Pope said on sacramental marriages and cohabitation.

For the record:

Pope Francis said Thursday that the great majority of sacramental marriages today are not valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of permanence and commitment.

“We live in a culture of the provisional,” the Pope said in impromptu remarks June 16. After addressing the Diocese of Rome’s pastoral congress, he held a question-and-answer session.

A layman asked about the “crisis of marriage” and how Catholics can help educate youth in love, help them learn about sacramental marriage, and help them overcome “their resistance, delusions and fears.”

The Pope answered from his own experience.

“I heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had finished his university studies, and said ‘I want to become a priest, but only for 10 years.’ It’s the culture of the provisional. And this happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,” he said.

“It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null. Because they say “yes, for the rest of my life!” but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t know.”

And also this:

He added that a majority of couples attending marriage prep courses in Argentina typically cohabitated.

 “They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.”

He said that in Argentina’s northeast countryside, couples have a child and live together. They have a civil wedding when the child goes to school, and when they become grandparents they “get married religiously.”

“It’s a superstition, because marriage frightens the husband. It’s a superstition we have to overcome,” the Pope said. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity, but there are local superstitions, etc.”

Catholic Divorce - Canonical critiques of annulment reform are piling up: Will the Vatican, the bishops, and the Francis "Amen corner" listen?

See also our previous pieces:

Can zealous Bishops and Cardinals question the Annulment Reform and ask for its abrogation? 

For the record: Cardinal Burke's latest address on the Synod and "Annulment" Reform. Rorate reminder: 2015 Synod poised to assault Humanae Vitae too.

Head of Vatican Commission Admits in Official Paper: Surge in Number of "Annulments" Intended

The Excommunication of Robert II "the Pious" - painting by Jean-Paul Laurens. 

Something is definitely in the air: Prominent canonists initially lauding the marriage nullity reforms, then backtracking, then public coming out strongly against these, and very real talk of discontent among a significant number of canon lawyers and prelates. And we're not talking about traditionalists here! The Pope's arbitrary and highly problematic reforms of the process for declaring marriage nullity, worked out with no widespread consultations and in relative secrecy and published on September 8 through the motu proprio Mitis Iudex, is fast turning into an unprecedented crisis of authority for his rule. The crisis of authority is real and no amount of denial and snubbing by the Catholic media establishment and by "respectable" Catholic bloggers can hide it.

In the first days after the promulgation of Mitis Iudex the critical assessments of it by canon lawyer Kurt Martens and the professor of systematic theology Chad Pecknold, both professors at Catholic University of America, reached a wide audience through Washington Post's report on the reform (Pope Francis announces biggest changes to annulment process in centuries). To our knowledge it was Martens who first publicly referred to the reforms as the "Catholic version of no-fault divorce". Please keep this in mind next time you see a bishop or professional apologist blaming a secularist conspiracy for allegedly fabricating the idea that the Pope has just instituted "Catholic divorce". But we digress...

Despite the Washington Post article, the initial at-length analyses of the reforms in the "conservative" Catholic press tended to be either neutral or positive about it. Aside from Jimmy Akin's neutral "things to know and share" take on the motu proprio, three essays initially lauding or downplaying the seriousness the reforms and written by canon lawyers made the rounds in social media:

Catholic Divorce: Can zealous Bishops and Cardinals question the Annulment Reform and ask for its abrogation?

Can the governing acts of the Pope be questioned?

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

September 18, 2015

Sandro Magister has documented the vulnus inflicted on Christian matrimony by Pope Francis’ two Motu Proprio with an in-depth article, which adds to Antonio Socci’s comments in “Libero”, Paolo Pasqualucci’s on “Chiesa e Post Concilio” and to my article in Corrispondenza Romana. Confirmation that there is an atmosphere of deep unease in the Vatican has come from the other side  from the news service “Die Zeit” of September 10th, concerning the dossier that is apparently circulating in the Vatican against the marriage annulment procedures of Pope Francis.

At this point a delicate problem is now placed before many consciences. Whatever judgment we have about the Motu Proprio, it is [nonetheless] presented as an act of personal and direct government by the Supreme Pontiff. Yet, can a Pope be mistaken in the promulgation of ecclesiastical laws? Further, if there is dissent, is it not however respectful to have an attitude of silence in his regard? 

The answer comes to us from the doctrine and history of the Church.  Many times actually, it has happened that Popes have been mistaken in their political, pastoral and even magisterial acts, without in any way undermining the dogma of the Roman Primate’s  infallibility.  The resistance of the faithful to these erroneous acts, and in some instances illegitimate by some Supreme Pontiffs, has always been of benefit to the life of the Church.

For the record: Cardinal Burke's latest address on the Synod and "Annulment" Reform. Rorate reminder: 2015 Synod poised to assault Humanae Vitae too.

His Eminence, Raymond Cardinal Burke gave a talk on Sunday, September 13, 2015 to Credo St. Louis, Missouri. The title of this talk was "The Truth of Christ in Marriage". An audio recording is now available on Youtube (h/t Vox Cantoris.)

 

A summary of the talk is on the LifeSite News article What do we do if the Synod takes a ‘strange turn’? The simple answer just got Cardinal Burke big applause, authored by the eminent theologian Fr. Brian Harrison, which also summarizes the Cardinal's reservations about the radical reform of the canonical process for the declaration of nullity (our emphasis):

... His Eminence also noted that certain problems could arise in connection with Pope Francis' new marriage nullity legislation, promulgated on September 8th.

Catholic Divorce Arrives: The Papal Marriage Annulment Reforms are a Wound Inflicted on Christian Marriage

A Wound Inflicted on Christian Marriage

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

September 9, 2015

Pope Francis' Apostolic Letters given Motu Proprio Mitis iudex Dominus Iesus, for the Latin Church, and Mitis et misericors Iesu, for the Oriental Churches, made public on September 8, 2015, inflict a grave wound on Christian Marriage.

The indissolubility of marriage is a Divine and unmodifiable law of Jesus Christ. The Church cannot “annul” a marriage in the sense of dissolving it. She can, through a declaration of nullity, verify its inexistence, due to the lack of those requisites which assure its validity. Which means that in the canonical process, the Church’s priority is not the interests of the spouses to obtain the declaration of nullity, but the validity of the marriage bond itself. Pius XII, regarding this, reminds us that: 

“in the matrimonial process the one final end is the judgment in compliance with the truth and and the law, consisting, within the procedure of nullity, of the assertion of the non-existence of the marital bond” (Allocution to the Roman Rota, October 2nd 1944).

The faithful can deceive the Church in order to obtain the annulment: for example, by using false witnesses, but the Church cannot fool God and has the duty of rigorously verifying the clear and precise truth. 

UPDATED with links to texts IMPORTANT: Two Apostolic Letters Motu Proprio reforming the annulment process to be presented tomorrow

UPDATE: Text of the two Apostolic Letters are now up on the Vatican website:

Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus - Italian - Latin
Mitis et Misericors Iesus - Italian - Latin

English summary of the main changes by Vatican Radio. From the introduction of the motu proprio for the Latin Church (Mitis Iudex):

... Some fundamental criteria that guided  the work of reform are noted: 

That there be only one sentence in favor of executive nullity – It appeared opportune, in the first place, that there no longer be required a twofold decision in favor of marital nullity, in order that the parties be admitted to new canonically valid marriages: the moral certainty reached by the first judge according to law should be sufficient.

A single judge under the responsibility of the Bishop – The constitution of a single judge in the first instance, who shall always be a cleric, is placed under the responsibility of the Bishop, who, in the pastoral exercise of his own proper judicial power shall guarantee that no laxity be indulged in this matter.

The Bishop is judge – In order that the teaching of the II Vatican Council be finally translated into practice in an area of great importance, the decision was made to make evident the fact that the Bishop is, in his Church – of which he is constituted pastor and head – is by that same constitution judge among the faithful entrusted to him. It is desired that, in Dioceses both great and small, the Bishop himself should offer a sign of the conversion of ecclesiastical structures, and not leave the judicial function completely delegated to the offices of the diocesan curia, as far as matters pertaining to marriage are concerned.

Increased brevity in the legal process – In fact, beyond making the marriage annulment process more agile, a briefer form of trying nullity cases has been designed – in addition to the documentary process already approved and in use – which is to be applied in cases in which the accusation of marital nullity is supported by particularly evident arguments. In any case, the extent to which an abbreviated process of judgment might put the principle of the indissolubility of marriage at risk, did not escape me [writes Pope Francis – ed.]: thus, I have desired that, in such cases the Bishop himself shall be constituted judge, who, by force of his pastoral office is with Peter the greatest guarantor of Catholic unity in faith and in discipline.

Appeal to the Metropolitcan See – It is fitting that the appeal to the Metropolitan See be re-introduced, since that office of headship of an Ecclesiastical province, stably in place through the centuries, is a distinctive sign of the synodality of the Church.

The proper role of the Bishops’ Conferences – The Bishops’ Conferences, which must be driven above all by the anxious apostolic desire to reach the far-off faithful, should formally recognize the duty to share the aforesaid conversion, and respect absolutely the right of the Bishops to organize judicial power each within his own particular Church.

There-establishment of vicinity between the judge and the faithful, in fact, shall not be successful if the stimulus does not come from the Conferences to the single Bishops, along with the necessary assistance, to put into practice the reform of the marital nullity process.

Appeal to the Apostolic See – It is fitting that the appeal to the ordinary Tribunal of the Apostolic See, i.e. the Roman Rota, be maintained: this, in respect of a most ancient juridical principle, so that the bond between the See of Peter and the particular Churches be reinforced – having care, in any case, in the discipline of the use of said appeal, to contain any and all abuse of right, in order that the salvation of souls be given no cause for harm. ...

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[Original post time: 09/07/15 10:44 AM]

After the Synod, the Kasper party opens a second front: "Catholic Divorce"

We are very honored to post this new article by a very wise, knowledgeable, and highly influential cleric, writing under the pen name of don Pio Pace.

After the Synod, the Kasper party opens a second front: 

"Catholic Divorce"

by Don Pio Pace

The extraordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops had barely ended, and the partisans of the liberalization of the Church's discipline concerning the indissolubility of marriage open a second front, that of the "simplification" of the canonical procedures of the declaration of nullity.

The demotion of Cardinal Burke from his position as Prefect of Apostolic Signatura finds in this matter its true meaning. His role in the nominations of bishops for the United States under Benedict XVI was not enough to explain his demotion, because in order to neutralize his influence, it sufficed (as it was done) to remove him from the Congregation for Bishops, where he was replaced by Cardinal Wuerl. On the other hand, in his place as "Senior Judge" of the Roman church, he was always a serious obstacle to the accomplishment of a project now under study: to turn annulment procedures into a "Catholic divorce" in all but name.

The great lines of this project, undoubtedly already relatively settled in secret, can be summarized in four points: