People often say that Father X married them. We know what they mean but it is not true of
course. It is the couple themselves, the
man and the woman, the bride and bridegroom who marry one another. When the marriage is a sacrament – and not
every marriage is a sacrament – it is the bride and groom who are the ministers
of the sacrament. If they are not
baptised, for instance, their marriage is not sacramental because we need to be
baptised before we can celebrate or receive any other sacrament.
In any marriage – sacramental or otherwise – it is
the consent of the parties – the promise they make to love each other without
limits and forever – that makes them husband and wife. The Catholic understanding of marriage is
that it is the living out in love of the promises that the couple make to each
other on the day of the marriage. For
that to happen the promises they exchange must be made freely. They need to understand what they are
undertaking and they must be able to live out these promises – and they must
want to do so. Much more is involved
than just going through the ceremony!
Not everyone is able to enter a valid marriage at
every stage of their life – or at all.
There is a minimum that is required and that minimum is not a trifle. There are people who marry without an
adequate understanding of what they are doing or of the commitment they are
undertaking. Not everyone has the maturity
that married lives require. A commitment
to what is impossible for one is never valid.
The Church understands marriage to be ‘a communion of life and
love.’ Those entering marriage must have
personal strengths and qualities to enter such a union.
Church and State have always accepted that marriage
can be declared invalid or null. But the
presumption is that the marriage is valid.
When a request for a decree of nullity is made the party or parties
making the claims must seek to establish that this is not so. Each diocese has a marriage tribunal to look
at cases brought before it. This body
examines whether the parties had sufficient understanding of what they were
doing, whether they seriously intended to do it or whether they were able to
live out these promises. It is not the
task of the marriage tribunal to judge or blame people. Its purpose is to seek to determine if a
marriage came into being when the couple exchanged their marriage promises.
Pope Francis issued an important document about a
year ago dealing with marriage and family life.
It is entitled – from its opening words –‘The Lord Jesus, the merciful
judge.’ It contains a major reform of
procedures regarding marriage annulments, which he believes will help in his
own words ‘an enormous number of the faithful.’
He wants those who have experienced marriage breakdown to have easier
access to justice and help them, more easily, to once again play a full part in
the life of the Church. In some places
tribunals are very difficult to access because of distance or cost of having to
take time off work. He allows the bishop
to take the place of the tribunal to bring justice closer to the people. The annulment process should be cost free and
it should be quicker. In the past if the
diocesan tribunal decided in favour of an annulment, a higher tribunal had to
agree to its findings making the process even more costly, slow and anxious. Now that is no longer the case. An appeal only happens when the other party
wants it. Even then when an appeal is regarded
as a delaying tactic it can be dismissed.
To further help those who might be put off the idea
of a tribunal Pope Francis has introduced a new initiative – a new ministry. A bishop can appoint somebody whose task it
would be to meet with a person or couple whose marriage had broken down to help
in the preparation of their application for a decree of nullity. This would make the process less intimidating
and quicker. It is up to the bishops to
provide this ministry in their dioceses.
The new process is designed to make interviews shorter and easier for
people and to give greater credibility to people’s testimony – unless there are
indications to the contrary.
There are some who have been saying that the reform
is inspired by ‘false’ compassion. Some
believe that Pope Francis’ whole ministry is inspired by false compassion. I wonder why they don’t say the same about
Christ’s ministry as revealed to us in the Gospel! Others say that these reforms have the
potential to bring about great good and make a great difference to a great many
people.
