Thursday 29 October 2015

The Annulment Tsunami: Pope Francis' Moto Proprio on Marriage Annulments, contradicts Familiaris Consortio and will cause "grave harm"

St. Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio, the great roadblock that the adulterists are unable to get around, without falling into heresy and schism, also has another great roadblock for innovators and malefactors who would, if it be possible, precipitate a tsunami of so-called "annulments".

Canonists, such as the respected Edward Peters, rightly raise a whole plethora of concerns with the Moto Proprio, Mitis Judex, pointing out that Article 14, Section One is very dangerous, confusing legitimate as well as illegitimate grounds for annulment. One such illegitimate ground is the faith of the persons getting married. Peters points out that this argument is canonically untenable. As long as the two parties say the right words of the marriage vow, in the vast, vast majority of cases the marriages are valid. Confusion as to religious dogma, doctrine, or material heresy of the couple getting married (which today would be the vast majority) in no way invalidates the marriage. If that be the case, separated brethren would be unable to marry. Further, valid marriage (non-sacramental) pre-dated Christian marriage, which the Church has always recognized as such. 

From Mitis Judex: 

Art. 14 § 1. Among the circumstances of things and persons that can allow a case for nullity of marriage to be handled by means of the briefer process according to cann. 1683-1687, are included, for example: the defect of faith which can generate simulation of consent or error that determines the will...


Contrast the above, to the doctrinal reasons why faith is not a ground for an annulment. From Familiaris Consortio: 

68. Precisely because in the celebration of the sacrament very special attention must be devoted to the moral and spiritual dispositions of those being married, in particular to their faith, we must here deal with a not infrequent difficulty in which the pastors of the Church can find themselves in the context of our secularized society.

In fact, the faith of the person asking the Church for marriage can exist in different degrees...

... the decision of a man and a woman to marry in accordance with this divine plan, that is to say, the decision to commit by their irrevocable conjugal consent their whole lives in indissoluble love and unconditional fidelity, really involves, even if not in a fully conscious way, an attitude of profound obedience to the will of God, an attitude which cannot exist without God's grace...

...As for wishing to lay down further criteria for admission to the ecclesial celebration of marriage, criteria that would concern the level of faith of those to be married, this would above all involve grave risks. In the first place, the risk of making unfounded and discriminatory judgments; secondly, the risk of causing doubts about the validity of marriages already celebrated, with grave harm to Christian communities, and new and unjustified anxieties to the consciences of married couples; one would also fall into the danger of calling into question the sacramental nature of many marriages of brethren separated from full communion with the Catholic Church, thus contradicting ecclesial tradition.

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