According to the 1983 Code of Canon Law, marriage is presumed valid (a true marriage) until it is proven otherwise in the Church's court of law by way of a decree of nullity declared by a properly constituted ecclesiastical tribunal. (Canon 1060).
Once a marriage has taken place, neither party may remarry in the Catholic Church, unless one party dies or the marriage is declared to have been null and void from the beginning. Otherwise, a second marriage is considered to be invalid.
Catholics living in invalid marriages are not permitted to receive Holy Communion (Canon 915).
This traditional teaching and canonical discipline was reaffirmed by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on June 24, 2000.
Yet on June 16, 2016, as he addressed the Diocese of Rome's Pastoral Congress, Pope Francis stated, during unscripted comments in answer to questions from the audience, that "the great majority our our sacramental marriages are null" because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding and acceptance of permanence and commitment.
The very next day (June 17), the Vatican released an official transcript of the exchange which redacted the Pope's statement to say that "a portion of our sacramental marriages are null". In the Vatican blog "Il sismografo", Father Frederico Lombardi explained that the change was a revision which Pope Francis himself had approved for publication.
Still, Pope Francis seems to have thrown a wrench into the traditional understanding of the Church regarding the Sacrament of Marriage.
And, while many still were shocked by the redacted version of the Pope's comments, I believe his actual response the day before was more accurate and reflects the true situation regarding sacramental marriage in the Church today.
There seems to be sufficient evidence which affirms that the overwhelming majority of sacramental marriages celebrated in the Church today are factually null and void from the beginning.
Permit me to offer the following observations and facts which I believe support and defend this proposition.
Let us first consider the role which culture plays in the formation of a human being as a moral and religious person. Culture is understood to be “common way of life” of a given society, composed foremost by the intellectual and spiritual dimension which in turn defines the formal and material interactions by which members of society interact with each other.
Culture can further be understood as a standard of learning, a patrimony of history and accomplishment, established by the collective labor of the members over successive generations.
Consequently, for a culture or society to endure, each succeeding generation must be initiated into "the common way of life". If the culture is not conveyed to and acquired by succeeding generations, it will collapse or be conquered. Moreover, individual members or groups may become dysfunctional, and perhaps even be enslaved by a counter or contradictory culture.
The process by which the history, tradition, belief and practice is passed from one cultural generation to the next is known as enculturation. It takes place first and most effectively in the experience of the family, which introduces the child to the wonders and workings of reality and the heritage of the common culture.
This effort is further enhanced and perfect by the process of education by which knowledge and behavior is imparted to and impressed upon the younger members of the community through particular institutions of successively higher learning.
When either the family or the social institutions of education fail in their efforts, the culture and the society it has developed and supported are put in jeopardy.
What applies to human society applies equally to the Church in its cultural expression as a community of believers, members of a spiritual, a mystical body united to each other and to Christ as their head.
From the earliest times, the Church herself has understood the unique and essential role of the family in the building up of the Body of Christ. In the very Rite of Baptism, the Church reminds the parents that they are "the first teachers of their child in the ways of faith".
No person or institution can supplant the role and influence which the parents play in the formation of the personality and character of their child. When the parents fail to provide adequate instruction supported by practical example, the cultural values which form the society of which they are a part fail to be handed on to the next generation. As a result, the culture is diminished and perhaps weakened beyond any ability to rehabilitate or reassert itself.
Likewise, the Church traditionally has placed a strong emphasis on the role of education in safeguarding her culture and influence upon society. The pulpit was considered to be the place where the Catholic faithful were instructed in the tenets of the faith and encouraged in the practice of Catholic virtues and traditions. Moreover, Catholic schools were seen to be handmaids to the sacred pastors in the Catholic cultural formation of the young, the future generations of the Church.
For centuries, strong family ties, an abundance of clergy and a dedication to the education of the young in a Catholic school environment provided the Church with a clearly identifiable cultural influence upon society and ensured that such an influence would continue seemingly until the end of time.
But, when the Church found herself threatened by the proponents of the Protestant Reformation, her response came in the form of dictates and precepts forcefully enunciated and unrelentingly imposed upon society. The Council of Trent, the Church's answer to Luther and other heretics of his day, would establish a stranglehold on Catholic culture which allowed for no innovation or development in Church doctrine or practice for the next five centuries.
In effect, the culture of the Church would become frozen in time. Church doctrine, customs and rituals were taught as immutable eternal truths which were so essential to her mission that, to alter them in anyway, was to deny that the Church was the sure means of salvation imparted to mankind by Christ Himself. Any change in language, gesture, wording or thought was considered anathema.
For the next five hundred years, no matter where on the face of the earth, Catholics prayed in the same language, praticed the ritual gestures, sang the same hymns, and listened to the same sermons. Latin was the universal language. The Catechism was universally taught in every school. Questions or disagreements with official Church teachings were dismissed as somehow disloyal and unfaithful to the eternal truths bequeathed to the Church directly from Christ Himself. To question the Church was to question the Lord. Such arrogance and infidelity was unthinkable and unacceptable.
This was the culture which gave rise to Catholic Europe. This was the culture which advanced Western Civilization far beyond the borders of the Continent to the New World and Third World missionary countries ripe for conversion. In America, this was the Catholic culture which helped give rise to a vibrant and wealthy middle class, raising European immigrant peoples to a lifestyle they could never have imagined.
Yet, even as the Catholic culture took comfort in reaffirming ageless and timeless truths which nourished the spiritual needs and aspirations of its members, science and technology began to impact modern society in ways that the Church could never envision. More and more, the world became increasingly secularized, looking for practical solutions to the difficulties and demands of daily living. So much so that in the present digital age in which we find ourselves today, the impact and influence of the Church has been diminished to such a degree that it has become seemingly irrelevant as society today seeks to define and express itself.
In the next part of this series, we shall examine the present state of Catholic culture in the world today in terms of the steady decline in the numbers of those who actively practice their faith, the crisis in the number of ordained clergy, the ever increasing divorce rate among Catholics and the impact which these broken marriages and homes are having upon present and future generations of the Church.
In the third and final part, we shall consider the negative consequences which this weakened Catholic culture has had upon the ability of couples to validly marry according to the teachings and canonical disciplines of the Church.
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