How one cardinal proposes to correct ignorance of marriage's nature

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Hmmm, an interesting interview with Card Wuerl.

IMO, on the positive side, it seems to lean away from the idea of giving communion to the remarried, and towards reforming the anullment process, which I think is a good sign. On the negative side, it seems to advance a mentality of “if a person wants an anullment, they should therefore be given one”, rather than “if the objective facts of the case warrant an anullment, they should be given one”.

Also, for those who aren’t aware, Card Wuerl was one of the Cardinals on the committee that wrote the Synod’s mid-term report, and final report.

ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=11048

How one cardinal proposes to correct ignorance of marriage’s nature

Another area of concern among synod fathers was the process of marriage annulment.

“The fact that there are Catholic couples and people who have re-married, and therefore can’t come to Communion, the fact that they would desperately like to do so, and the Church recognizes the good of that; the question is, ‘how do we do that while being faithful to the teaching of the Church concerning the bond?’ That brings us to the question of an annulment, the declaration that there never was a bond in the first place,” Cardinal Wuerl commented.

It was in reference to this that he suggested that “so many of our young people” might not have a correct understanding of marriage, to the extent that they cannot validly contract a marriage.

“Having said all that,” he continued, “there were many, many of us who felt (that) if we’re going to go the route of annulment, then that process can’t be so costly or so burdensome that it becomes a weight around the shoulders of the people trying to regularize their situation.”

Cardinal Wuerl added that “there were a number of suggestions on how to do that,” and that “that’s probably going to be an area that there’ll be a lot of discussion (about) between now and the next synod.”…

Regarding a term that received much attention in the synod’s mid-term report – causing media speculation and confusion – the principle of “graduality” was nowhere to be found in the final document, Cardinal Wuerl confirmed.

“The whole concept of ‘graduality’ – that surfaced but you don’t find it in the final document,” he said.

“And I think one of the reasons for that is it’s a theological concept. It’s not a concept that you find well-expounded, well-defined, well-developed. And so if there’s going to be any reference to that in the future, I think it’s going to require a lot more thought and a lot more theological penetration.”
 
The more I’ve thought about this statement, the more it seems like this could be pretty significant.

Card Wuerl is important on the progressive side of things, is close to Francis, and was hand picked by Francis to be on the committee that wrote both of the Synod documents.

In this interview he plainly re-affirms that remarried people cannot receive communion, and clearly says that the way to resolve issues is through the anullment process.

Given who he is, and the timing of this statement, I can’t help but think this is pretty meaningful and encouraging.
 
McCall1981 said:
Hmmm, an interesting interview with Card Wuerl.

IMO, on the positive side, it seems to lean away from the idea of giving communion to the remarried, and towards reforming the anullment process, which I think is a good sign. On the negative side, it seems to advance a mentality of “if a person wants an anullment, they should therefore be given one”, rather than “if the objective facts of the case warrant an anullment, they should be given one”.

Also, for those who aren’t aware, Card Wuerl was one of the Cardinals on the committee that wrote the Synod’s mid-term report, and final report.

ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=11048

How one cardinal proposes to correct ignorance of marriage’s nature

Another area of concern among synod fathers was the process of marriage annulment.

“The fact that there are Catholic couples and people who have re-married, and therefore can’t come to Communion, the fact that they would desperately like to do so, and the Church recognizes the good of that; the question is, ‘how do we do that while being faithful to the teaching of the Church concerning the bond?’ That brings us to the question of an annulment, the declaration that there never was a bond in the first place,” Cardinal Wuerl commented.

It was in reference to this that he suggested that “so many of our young people” might not have a correct understanding of marriage, to the extent that they cannot validly contract a marriage.

“Having said all that,” he continued, “there were many, many of us who felt (that) if we’re going to go the route of annulment, then that process can’t be so costly or so burdensome that it becomes a weight around the shoulders of the people trying to regularize their situation.”

Cardinal Wuerl added that “there were a number of suggestions on how to do that,” and that “that’s probably going to be an area that there’ll be a lot of discussion (about) between now and the next synod.”…

Regarding a term that received much attention in the synod’s mid-term report – causing media speculation and confusion – the principle of “graduality” was nowhere to be found in the final document, Cardinal Wuerl confirmed.

“The whole concept of ‘graduality’ – that surfaced but you don’t find it in the final document,” he said.

“And I think one of the reasons for that is it’s a theological concept. It’s not a concept that you find well-expounded, well-defined, well-developed. And so if there’s going to be any reference to that in the future, I think it’s going to require a lot more thought and a lot more theological penetration.”
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I disagree, since I think that the annulment process has been abused. If anyone can get a marriage annulment, then who out there is actually married sacramentally. I agree with His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper who has said that in some cases a marriage annulment is a divorce in a Catholic way, in a dishonest way.
americamagazine.org/content/all-things/cardinal-kasper-some-fear-domino-effect-synod-family
 
I cannot recommend highly enough Cardinal Burke’s essay on the annulment process in the “five cardinals book”. He explains how even seemingly harmless changes to the annulment process (like eliminating the double conforming sentence) have seriously damaged the annulment process in the past by reducing it to a “get-out-of-marriage-free card” rather than an honest search for truth.

The worst thing the Church could possibly do at the general synod–the worst injustice it could perpetrate against the People of God–would be to offer them an annulment process that feeds people a comforting lie about their marital status, rather than providing a genuine inquiry into the validity of the marriage. That must not happen.

Cardinal Burke discusses the fact that, for a few years before the 1983 Code of Canon Law was released, the United States was allowed to dispense with the double conforming sentence in exceptional cases where it was very obvious that it wasn’t necessary. The practical result? Everyone who asked was dispensed from the double conforming sentence. No one was ever denied. Cardinal Burke writes that he was unable to find a single case, out of many thousands of cases, in which a single person was denied this “rare,” “exceptional” dispensation. And because the double conforming sentence was de facto eliminated, the “defender of the bond” often failed to do his job adequately, and a huge number of questionable annulments were granted. This is the era in which it became fashionable to think of an annulment as a “Catholic divorce.”

Notice how one tiny, exceptional permission seriously harmed the integrity of the annulment process. That should scare you. If that tiny little dispensation was blown up into a general permission for everyone who asked, and then did real violence to the annulment process, imagine how mugh worse it could be. Imagine what could happen if the Church gives a supposedly “rare,” “exceptional” permission for a few annulment cases to be handled by a single priest in an administrative process, rather than by a tribunal in a judicial process. Imagine what will happen when nearly every diocese in the world starts treating this rare dispensation as a general permission. Imagine all those dioceses in which the priest in charge of annulments thinks of annulments as a way of giving people a “second chance” rather than a real search for the truth. That’s terrifying.

What I’m saying, I guess, is that if the Church simplifies the annulment process, they need to give some very serious thought to oversight, and they need real, consistently-enforced sanctions for when priests or tribunal members shirk their duty. Anything less is going to lead to an annulment process rife with abuses, and that would be a terrible injustice against the very people seeking annulments.
 
Tomdstone said:
I disagree, since I think that the annulment process has been abused. If anyone can get a marriage annulment, then who out there is actually married sacramentally. I agree with His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper who has said that in some cases a marriage annulment is a divorce in a Catholic way, in a dishonest way.
americamagazine.org/content/all-things/cardinal-kasper-some-fear-domino-effect-synod-family
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I think that a lot of marriages are entered into without an understanding of what contracting a Catholic marriage means. I mean, an understanding that would withstand scrutiny from the Tribunal.

That said, many, many people grow into the understanding, and are successful at their marriage vocation. A marriage is considered sacramentally valid unless the Tribunal rules it is not.

So, this current situation is brought on because clergy are allowing people to marry with incomplete understanding, whether it’s to please parents, peer pressure, or whatever.

I am a data guy, and I would love it if the Church would gather statistics on how many couples present themselves for marriage, how many actually marry in the Church, how many are turned away, how many decide on civil marriage, etc.
 
From the article it seems Cardinal Wuerl is spot on when it comes to the situation we see in society today.

Marriages are off at almost 70% in my area, according to recent surveys.

My brother makes his living as a musician in a band, and he confirms that their business playing at weddings is way down, to almost non-existent.

Anyway, I’,m happy to learn that Cardinal Wuerl is well connected to the issue and not speaking from abstract uninformed position.

Accepting reality is the only way the leaders of the Church can begin to work at helping people realize the importance of marriage and family.

Jim
 
PaulinVA said:
A marriage is considered sacramentally valid unless the Tribunal rules it is not.
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You might consider it so , but is it true in reality? For example, if a man had already married previously, and did not get a marriage annulment, and didn’t tell his prospective wife, so no one knew about it, but then went ahead with the Catholic marriage ceremony, you might consider the marriage to be sacramentally valid, but you would be wrong. The new marriage would be a sacramentally invalid marriage regardless of what any tribunal said about it.
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Marriages are off at almost 70% in my area, according to recent surveys.
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If there is a good chance that the marriage will someday be declared null and void anyway, then wouldn’t a couple question the reason why they had to spend all that money on the marriage ceremony and celebration, when fifteen years down the line, they find out that a Catholic Church tribunal declares that they weren’t really married validly?
 
Tomdstone said:
If there is a good chance that the marriage will someday be declared null and void anyway, then wouldn’t a couple question the reason why they had to spend all that money on the marriage ceremony and celebration, when fifteen years down the line, they find out that a Catholic Church tribunal declares that they weren’t really married validly?
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Going through the marriage annulment process is the last thing on the mind’s of couples who chose not to get married these days.

Such couples generally don’t follow Christian religion in the first place.

Many today believe in God on an elementary level, but place no trust in institutionalized religion.

That being said, I know such couples and they are taking notice of Pope Francis and like what they see.

Jim
 
Any tweaks to the annulment process to make it more “streamlined”, “up to date” “less cumbersome” will basically lead to catholic divorce with the annulment semantic slapped on it. From the experiences that I’ve seen any sort of movement in a direction, even if its implied, will be abused to the fullest extent. Don’t make not eating meat required ( you still can abstain, or if bishops decide so) on Fridays because some cultures don’t eat meat anyway- all catholic dietary laws are wiped out in America. Say that technically girls can be alter servers but boys are preferred- now alter girls outnumber boys by a large margin and their first hand experience in the closest thing we have to priest training for kids is inspiring girls to what…?? Change the mass from latin but preserve it as the official language of the church- you won’t find it except a a tiny amount of traditionalist churches and apparently the synod didn’t issue a report in latin because its a dead language after all.
 
boar2roar said:
Any tweaks to the annulment process to make it more “streamlined”, “up to date” “less cumbersome” will basically lead to catholic divorce with the annulment semantic slapped on it. From the experiences that I’ve seen any sort of movement in a direction, even if its implied, will be abused to the fullest extent. Don’t make not eating meat required ( you still can abstain, or if bishops decide so) on Fridays because some cultures don’t eat meat anyway- all catholic dietary laws are wiped out in America. Say that technically girls can be alter servers but boys are preferred- now alter girls outnumber boys by a large margin and their first hand experience in the closest thing we have to priest training for kids is inspiring girls to what…?? Change the mass from latin but preserve it as the official language of the church- you won’t find it except a a tiny amount of traditionalist churches and apparently the synod didn’t issue a report in latin because its a dead language after all.
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Of course this is your opinion which I do not share.

FYI, see this forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=918500

Jim
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Of course this is your opinion which I do not share.

FYI, see this forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=918500

Jim
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I’m glad that you shared that with me. I will never mistakenly assume that my posts always reflect your opinion ever again… yeah believe it or not my posts don’t speak on behalf of everyone on these forums, I don’t think yours do either.

But to the point whats your view? If you don’t think that the changes that the more progressive bishops want in the annulment process will lead to divorce in everything but name, then I think your being naive. If you think divorce is okay then I just fundamentally disagree with you.

I looked at your link and its vague flowery talk by the pope, ok? I can quote Benedict and other popes if you want their views on divorce>
 
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