Roberto de Mattei: Christian Matrimony Has Been Dealt a Grievous Blow

by Roberto de Mattei *

The two motu proprio of Pope Francis Mitis iudex Dominus Iesus for the Latin Church and Mitis et misericors Jesus for the Oriental Churches, which were announced on September 8, 2015 have dealt Christian marriage a serious wound.

The indissolubility of marriage is divine and immutable law of Jesus Christ. The Church can not "cancel" a marriage in the sense of dissolution. You can, with a declaration of invalidity, consider its non-existence, if those conditions are not met which ensure their validity. This means that it is not the interest of the spouse which has priority in a canonical process for the Church to obtain a declaration of invalidity, but the truth about the validity of the marriage bond.

Pius XII. reminds us in this regard, that "the only destination is the truth of the marriage process and the law is its verdict in the annulment process, which secures the non-existence of the marriage bond" (allocution to the Roman Rota, October 2, 1944). The believer can cheat the Church to obtain a nullity, for example, through the use of false evidence, but the Church can not hoodwink God and has the duty to ascertain the truth in a clear and precise manner.

In the canonical process, the interests of marriage as a divine institution comes first

In the canonical process, first place goes to the highest interest of the divine institution - and marriage is one such - to be defended. The recognition and protection of this reality come in the legal field expressed in the narrow formulation favor matrimonii, in other words, acceptance of the validity of the marriage until proof to the contrary. John Paul II. declared that the magisterium represents the indissolubility of each consummated marriage as an ordinary law, precisely because the validity is assumed regardless of the success of married life and the possibility in some cases that there could be a marriage annulment (Speech the Roman Rota, January 21, 2000).

As the Enlightenment tried to deal a fatal blow to  Christian marriage,  Pope Benedict XIV. with the decree Dei miseratione from 3 November 1741, ordered that in each diocese a Defensor vinculi had to be used,  for obtaining the declaration of nullity, the principle double coincident judgment to by two different judicial bodies. The principle of double matching judgment was affirmed by the Code of Canon Law in 1917 as well as adopted by  John Paul II. on 25 January 1983 in the new Code of Canon Law.

Turned on its head by reform of Francis  - precedent USA 1971-1983

In the motu proprio of Pope Francis, things have been turned on their heads. The interest of the spouses take precedence over the marriage. This is said in the document itself. The basic criteria of reform can be summarized in a few points:
the abolition of the double, matching judgment, which is replaced by a single judgment in favor of the annulment;
granting a monocratic authority to the bishop, who is qualified as a single judge;  introduction of a fast and factually uncontrollable process;  with including extensive elimination of the Sacra Rota.

How else, for example, is the abolition of double judgment be interpreted? What are the reasons so serious that this principle will be abolished after 270 years? Cardinal Burke recalled that there is in this respect a catastrophic experience. In the United States were from July 1971 to November 1983, the so-called Provisional Norms, the de facto eliminated the duty of the double, matching judgment. The result was that the Bishops' Conference did not reject a single one of hundreds of thousands applications it dispensed, and that the process started to become popularly  known as  the "Catholic divorce" (s. Remain in the truth of Christ. Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church, Echter, Würzburg 2014).

New powers for Diocesan Bishops, one aspect of explosive scope

Even more serious is the granting of authority to the diocesan bishop, to be able to initiate a rapid process of a single judge at his discretion and to arrive at a judgment. The bishop may exercise his judicial power either personally or delegate it to a committee, which does not necessarily consist of lawyers. A commission in his own image, which of course follows his pastoral instructions, as is already happening in Italy with the "diocesan centers of listening," which lacks any legal basis to date. The combination of Canon 1683 and Article 14 of the Procedural Rules is under this aspect possessed of explosive implications. Sociological considerations will inevitably weigh on the decision: the divorced and remarried are to obtain for the sake of "mercy," preferential treatment. "The Church of Mercy has been set in motion," said Giuliano Ferrara in Il Foglio of 9 September 2015. It does not move by administrative channels, but on the "Courts", which has little to offer in the way of justice.

In some diocese, the bishops will try to ensure the seriousness of the process. But one can easily imagine that in many other dioceses, for example, in Central Europe, the annulment will be a  pure formality. In 1993 Oskar Saier, Archbishop of Freiburg, Karl Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz, and Walter Kasper, Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart, had produced a document in favor of those who were convinced, according to their conscience, for the annulment of their marriage, but not of the elements to prove this in court (Pastoral Letter of the Bishops for the Upper Rhine for the Pastoral Care of People from Broken Marriages, Divorced and Remarried Divorcees [In German]).

"Subjective conviction of conscience" is enough to keep marriage null and void?

The CDF responded by letter Annus Internationalis Familiae of 14 September 1994, with which they made it ​​clear that this path has not been possible because marriage is a public reality: "to ignore this important aspect would make marriage as a de facto reality of the Church, which would deny the sacrament "(no. 8). Nevertheless, recently, the Pastoral Office of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, took the proposal up again (Guidelines for the Pastoral Care to the address people in separation, divorce and after civil remarriage in the Archdiocese of Freiburg), according to which the divorced and remarried  because of a "conscience nullity" ("subjective conviction of conscience" ) of the previous marriage could receive the sacraments and   take on tasks in the parish councils.

The favor matrimonii is to be replaced by a favor nullitatis, which is the primary legal element whilst indissolubility is reduced to a "not practicable Ideal." The theoretical affirmation of the indissolubility of marriage is accompanied in practice by the claim to a right to declare any failed marriage band void. It is enough, in its conscience, to keep one's own marriage invalid, to obtain recognition of their annulment by the Church. It is the same principle, which according to some theologians, to hold a  marriage for "dead", in which the "love is dead" according to a statement of both or even one spouse.

"Bad money drives out good money"

Benedict XVI. warned on 29 January 2010 the Court of Sacra Romana Rota about  the cancellation of marriages by way of  a compliant attitude, "accommodating wishes and expectations of the parties or the influences of the social environment." However, in most diocese in Central Europe  the annulment has been reduced to a pure formality, as in the US when Provisional Norms was the case. Due to the known law, according to which "bad money drives out good money," will be condemned to chaos,  where the "quick divorce" will outweigh its opposite, the indissoluble marriage.

Since more than a year there is talk of a latent schism in the Church, but now  Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the prefect of the CDF, has implored in his speech in Regensburg against the danger of a schism, and urged vigilance and not to forget the lesson of the Protestant schism, which set Europe on fire   five centuries ago.

In advance of the Synod on the Family taking place in October, the reform of Pope Francis is not a torch, but it has sparked it and is paving the way for other catastrophic innovations. Silence is no longer possible.

* Roberto de Mattei, historian, father of five children, Professor of Modern History and History of Christianity at the European University of Rome, Chairman of the Lepanto Foundation, editor of the monthly magazine Radici Cristiane and the online news agency Corrispondenza Romana, author of numerous books, most recently appeared: Vicario di Cristo. Il primato di Pietro tra normalità ed eccezione (Vicar of Christ, the Primacy of Peter Between Normality and Exception.), Verona, 2013; translated into German last: The Second Vatican Council - a hitherto unwritten history, Ruppichteroth 2011. [Avalable on Amazon in English] The intertitles are from the editor.

Translation: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

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