CARDINAL FARRELL BEYOND EMBARRASSING

Now here’s a story that will make your head spin.  It did mine.

Try to follow the logic of this argument.  If you can, let me know.

“Marriage ministry needs to be done by married couples because priests have “no credibility in this area,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, told 500 delegates from the Diocese of Down and Connor at the Faith and Life convention in Belfast September 30.

The Cardinal discussed Pope Francis’s 2016 Apostolic Exhortation, Amoris Laetitia (“The Joy of Love”), and appealed to parishes (??) to establish study groups on the document and to train couples to teach, prepare, guide and accompany married couples.

On the role of priests in marriage accompaniment and preparation, he said they had “no credibility when it comes to living the reality of marriage” even though they may know the principles, the philosophy and the theology.

The Dublin-born former Bishop of Dallas said parishes (??) would have to be prepared to train laypeople for such a role, which he saw as a new model of accompaniment in line with the Pope’s vision for the church.

“But you can’t have laypeople just talk about marriage unless they are trained to do it,” he said.

So, the Cardinal is saying that Priests have no credibility (I guess he means knowledge not that they are dishonest) in speaking to couples about the Sacrament of Marriage.  

Rather, married people should do that because they have experiential knowledge of Marriage. 

But, these married people are not qualified to prepare couples for the Sacrament of Marriage unless they themselves have been properly trained to do so by parishes (??).

Is that right, Your Eminence?  

Is that what you are putting forth as an insight in addressing the crisis the Church is experiencing with regard to the Sacrament of Marriage?

And who in the parish, may I ask, is going to instruct the married people who will then be more credible than Priests to prepare couples for the Sacrament of Marriage?

It can’t be the Pastors or Associate Pastors, because, Your Eminence, you have already disqualified all Priests as lacking any credibility whatsoever.

So, who is supposed to instruct married couples in the process of the preparing couples for Marriage?  

Does such training happen by osmosis as married people gather to share their individual experiences of Marriage and apply these to the theology of the Sacrament and how it mirrors the sacred union between Christ and His Church?  

Are married people qualified (excuse me have credibility) simply by virtue of the fact that they are married?  

What about the married people who are living empty shallow relationships but who remain married?  Does the misery in the experience of their marriages qualify them to prepare couples for marriage?

What about those who were married and were unable or unwilling to respond to the responsibility of being a true spouse?  They have experiential knowledge of what Marriage entails. Are they more credible or more competent to prepare couples for the Sacrament?

Excuse me, but did I miss something here?  

This is beyond laughable, it’s pathetic!

And while we are on the subject, Your Eminence, if you really (seriously, in your heart of hearts) think that Marriage Preparation is effective and really assists couples who are already committed to marrying, have the date set, the dress bought, the hall rented and the caterer and menus chosen, well let me put it this way....

It seems the only person who really lacks any credibility in speaking about Marriage Preparation is you, Cardinal Farrell.  

And you are supposed to be the new guiding light in the Church’s effort to speak to the critical issues related to Marriage and Family Life in today's world?

Oh my!

Some days, it’s just really difficult to admit. let alone profess. membership in the Church, when such gross and embarrassing incompetence is so glaring among the hierarchy.  

Good grief indeed!