Needless to say, a debate is growing (and will continue to do so) in the Latin Church regarding the admitting of divorced and remarried persons to the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion. Recently, Pope Francis enthusiastically approved the norms submitted to him by the Argentine Bishops’ Conference which allow for a pastoral response to this situation. The problem is that a seeming majority of Latin bishops believe that such a practice is in conflict with the traditional teachings of the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Kasper, a German Roman Catholic Cardinal, a theologian and President Emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has been most vocal in advancing this unprecedented approach. He justifies his position by pointing to the pastoral practice of the Orthodox Church. Is Cardinal Kasper correct? Is the solution that simple, namely, that the Latin Church adopt the Orthodox Church’s practice of allowing the divorced and remarried to continue to receive the Sacraments without having sought recourse to complex canonical procedures and judicial declarations of nullity?
I think not and, in this two part post, I shall attempt to explain why.
The Latin Church’s understanding of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is radically different from that of the Orthodox Church. There are diverse historical, political and religious reasons for this difference which are much too complex to address in this post. Suffice it to say that I have taken a very broad and general view of this difference for the sake of both brevity and clarity.
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is considered to be essentially a legal or judicial act in which the spouses enter into a contract with each other. The terms (the bona) of the contract which each spouse agrees to fulfill are these: (1) offspring; (2) fidelity; and (3) indissolubility of the marital bond itself. Furthermore, the spouses themselves are the ministers of the contract which becomes valid when they declare (ratify) their marriage vows according to the prescribed canonical form sanctioned by the Church and seal (consummate) their union by the conjugal act of sexual intercourse.
Such a ratified and consummated marriage is considered to be binding until death. No human power, not even that of the Church, can dissolve a sacramental marriage which has been ratified and consummated. Outside of the death of one of the spouses, a sacramental marriage remains binding upon both parties even in the event that the civil effects of their union should be dissolved by a decree of divorce.
Thus, in the Latin Church, a person who has established a valid bond of sacramental marriage is perpetually bound to his or her spouse until death. Civil divorce does nothing to dissolve this sacred union. Consequently, should a validly married person who has obtained a civil divorce attempt to enter into marriage with another, such a union would be considered to essentially be an act sacrilege against the sacredness of the existing valid marriage. The decision to enter into a state of permanent adultery in a second invalid marriage results in the person living in a continuing state of serious sin.
Unless the second union is renounced and the previous valid marriage re-established, such a divorced and remarried person is permanently incapable of receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation which requires contrition for sin, absolution by the Church’s minister, and an amendment of life.
Without such contrition and absolution, the divorced and remarried person is unable to approach Holy Communion which requires the absence of serious sin for efficacious reception of the Body and Blood of Christ.
It is this traditional understanding of the theology of Holy Matrimony which has been the basis for the Latin Church’s insistence that divorced Catholics, whose marriages have not been declared to be invalid contracts, may not attempt future marriages without entering into a state of perpetual adultery (grave sin) with its appropriate sacramental penalties of exclusion from the sacramental life of the Church.
Now let us compare the Latin Church’s understanding of marriage with that of the Orthodox Church, a theology of Holy Matrimony which is essentially and radically different.
For the Orthodox Church, the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is not a legal or judicial act. In fact, in the Orthodox marriage ceremony, there are no vows or promises declared. They don’t exist.
A very quick look at the marriage ceremony itself in the Orthodox Church reveals that the actual ceremony for marriage developed and was formulated quite late, probably around the 10th Century, shortly before the Great Schism with the Western Church. To be married in the Orthodox Church prior to this time, the couple had to come before their bishop and, after his determination that everything was in order, receive his permission to have them recognized as married, imparting his blessing by saying some particular prayers over them.
In any case, in the Orthodox Church, no vows are expressed. No terms of a contract are established and exchanged. It is not a legal or judicial act. Marriage is a Sacrament, a means by which Grace is conferred upon human beings through the ministry of Christ's Church.
Holy Matrimony in the Orthodox Church is patterned after the Sacrament of Baptism. This may sound a bit confusing, but permit me to explain.
To be married in the Orthodox Church, the couple have to be one together already as far as the civil society is concerned. Thus, the couple must contract a civil marriage first. They present the civil license of marriage to show that they wish to offer themselves to Christ for this marriage not simply to be a human institution (of our fallen world) but one which has been touched by the Grace of Christ Himself.
There are no words in the Orthodox ceremony of Holy Matrimony. No vows are declared. The couple, already being professed to one another humanly, are met at the door of the church by the priest, and in the back of the church, the rings are put on as signs of betrothal. Following this, the spouses are led into the middle of the church and, just like a person being baptized, they recite the Creed, and are baptized.
Well, the Orthodox marriage ceremony is akin to Baptism several ways. The spouses come and give themselves to Christ in order to be one in Christ like Christ is one with the Church. They seek to be submissive to each other’s needs, as they are to Christ and His Church. The husband is expected to love his wife unto death, like Christ Who died for the Church. The wife is to reverence her husband as she reverences Christ, the Head of the Church. They are to stay together forever as Christ is forever with His Church.
It is very clear that, in the Orthodox ceremony of Holy Matrimony, the priest is the minister of the sacrament and not the couple. It is the blessing of the priest which constitutes the essence of marriage. The couple do not establish but rather receive the Sacrament of Marriage, a perpetual and sacred union of persons which mirrors the bond of Christ to His Church.
In keeping with this understanding, when a spouse dies, Orthodox theology expects that the surviving spouse will remain faithful to the marital union until death.
This is a critical difference between the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches.
Since marriage is not a legal or judicial act, but rather a sacred commitment to Christ and His Church, the sacred union cannot be negated by death, by a civil decree of divorce, nor be declared legally invalid. According to Orthodox theology, the Sacrament of Marriage perdures no matter happens. There simply exists no circumstance which could extinguish the existence of this sacramental union or invalidate it by judicial decree.
The question naturally arises regarding the pastoral response of the Orthodox Church to spouses who are either widowed or divorced. Can these persons remarry and still receive the sacraments? And, if so, what is the teaching of of the Church regarding a second marriage?
We shall address these questions in Part II of this consideration of the differences between the theology of the Catholic Church versus that of the Orthodox Church regarding Holy Matrimony. Perhaps, by considering such distinctions and differences, we may understand how the Latin Church may provide a broader pathway by which divorced and remarried Catholics may continue to receive the Sacraments.
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