Is it ever okay to consummate a marriage one knows is invalid?

[StrawberryJam]

No, I don’t know your Bishop. I’ve recently heard in person the Archbishop Cardinal George though.

Are they about the same?

Edit to add- just noted you are in New York. I am thinking Spellman after reading Fulton Sheen’s book. He must be long gone, but thinking it’s still a political powerful position in the church like then.

 

[NeelyAnn]

It is customary to go through your parish priest, or even another priest that may be a family friend, etc. when seeking an annulment. However, it is also OK to contact the diocese directly. Your friend may wish to do that instead.

 

[Eliza10]

No, I don’t know your Bishop. I’ve recently heard in person the Archbishop Cardinal George though.

Are they about the same?

Well, hmm. He is a priest as well as a bishop of course, and I think it displeases Our Lord to speak ill of priests. Their office is holy. Our bishop is not the inspiring kind and is not keen on the kind of teaching that makes strong and faithful Catholics. He’s led our Diocese a long time and when the leadership is like that for a long time there are hardly any vocations. That is certainly the case here. He has a penchant for building new church buildings. Expensive, but funded by diocean-wide, corporate style, guilt-inducing pledge drives. Usually tasteful and architecturally pleasing but not church-like at all and are the type that make lowly churchgoers very, very unhappy. He keeps building to suit himself anyway. Catholic schools close by the droves but we have a handsome but far less holy (and pretty empty) multi-million dollar Cathedral rennovation to show for it. The heirarchy system of our Church affords bishops free reign to do a lot of things no matter what the little people say. He is old enough to retire but wants to hang on for at least 5 more years he says. He certainly seems to enjoy his job. He always looks well-rested to me. He is very smiley and calm and relaxed and feel-good pleasant, and looks good in red.

Kind of off-topic, but since you asked…

 

[Eliza10]

It is customary to go through your parish priest, or even another priest that may be a family friend, etc. when seeking an annulment. However, it is also OK to contact the diocese directly. Your friend may wish to do that instead.

Thanks for letting me know about that option; I’ll pass that on. That is certainly preferable to going to a strange parish. .

 

[NeelyAnn]

BTW - thanks for the additional info. It sounds like your friend has a good head on her shoulders and is trying to do the right thing. I think in her gut, she knows what is right. Unfortunatey, she has a Liberal (I know, gasp) nun who seems to be derailing the situation.

 

[Eliza10]

BTW - thanks for the additional info. It sounds like your friend has a good head on her shoulders and is trying to do the right thing. I think in her gut, she knows what is right. Unfortunatey, she has a Liberal (I know, gasp) nun who seems to be derailing the situation.

Thanks NeelyAnn. I like you. I appreciate your contributions here. You seem to really get it.

 

[Spirithound]

I think this is where your problem lies, The catholic bound by canonical law is being disobedient to the church, and that has problems associated with the action. However this disobedience does not undo god’s work nor impose a deity authority inside the laity. Thus the extent to which this person answered god’s call is not something you can determine nor the tribunal. If that were true no marriage in a catholic church would ever be annulled. These annulments occur because the attempts to answer god’s call are often failed attempts. It is not the Church which failed it was the couple’s attempt. Whether the couple succeeds or fails is outside the Church’s control.

So you were there and heard these words in person, or read a transcript?

Can. 1055 §2.:

For this reason, a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament.

Both parties in the OP were baptized Catholic. This means that if they have a marriage, it is not a natural marriage, but a sacramental marriage.
Can. 1108 §1.:

Only those marriages are valid which are contracted before the local ordinary, pastor, or a priest or deacon delegated by either of them, who assist, and before two witnesses according to the rules expressed in the following canons and without prejudice to the exceptions mentioned in cann. ⇒ 144, ⇒ 1112, §1, ⇒ 1116, and ⇒ 1127, §§1-2.

They attempted to marry before a Justice of the Peace, therefore their marriage is not valid. Coupled with Canon 1055, their marriage is not valid, not natural, not sacramental.

children are never irrelevant nor is covenants with god

Yes, the presence of children is completely irrelevant to whether a marriage exists or not.

 

[Spirithound]

I just want to defend my friend from any misconceptions about her here - even though I am doing my best to keep her anonymous, I don’t want her misunderstood. She is devout in her prayers and practices…

I am sorry to have caused misunderstanding. My questions are intended not to malign your friend, but to really get to the heart of the matter. Your friend knows the answer: she is not married, and so cannot engage in sexual relations.

 

[Jermosh]

Sounds very complicated and that not all the details are fully understood. I would get another opionin from another priest as a deciding factor.

 

[Texas_Roofer]

Hi 1k
As you have sincerely listed some answers I sould list an opposing view. First and foremost as I mentioned initially the real problem is a misunderstanding of marriage. The Catholic Church teachings confirm scripture on this subject which says marriage was created by God in the garden of eden. It further says woman is made for man and they should marry. The common fault through this thread is to consider catholic records as marriage and discard the significance of the scripture and church teachings.

If she moves out, it would be up to the couple to determine who the children live with. They could live full time with one or the other, or could rotate.

is that church teaching? or was it:
2385
Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

I would encourage a literal interpretation here. Jane is considering placing an undo disharmony on the marriage. She may well damage both Joe and her children, and why do this? Well in the story we are told that celibacy was not an issue when she reverted, it was only an issue after she obtained a civil marriage. So why was the civil marriage key not the church teachings?

No one has suggested she move out.

Actually this is a common advice in these situations. Based on church teachings on scandal. But in this thread it was it was not “no one” in this thread it was a poster

It is the priest and nun who suggested this. It would be up to them to document these as church teachings, not us.

Were you there, or did you talk with the priest and nun separately? Surely you are not assuming this.

Define unity.

It is term common to catholic teaching for example in catechism 2364 it is referred to in this way:
The married couple forms “the intimate partnership of life and love established by the Creator and governed by his laws; it is rooted in the conjugal covenant, that is, in their irrevocable personal consent.” Both give themselves definitively and totally to one another. They are no longer two; from now on they form one flesh. The covenant they freely contracted imposes on the spouses the obligation to preserve it as unique and indissoluble. “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”

Now it is important to remember we are told she and he both freely had relations and freely gave personal consent with full knowledge of a sacramental impediment ( she was not mislead, nor lacking in information). They even found a witness, and made a record, to registered their marriage.

If Jane chooses to engage in sexual intercourse with the man to whom she is currently not validly married, she will be choosing to sin.

The catechism is clear god not man creates marriage and scripture tells us : *“What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” *
In this case who are we to pretend to know Joe and Jane were not put together by god. It is not the same to say their marriage cannot be considered sacramental and to say they are not married.

If she chooses to continue being chaste, she will be choosing not to sin.

If god put Jane and Joe together and the catechism is correct
2385
Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.

If you are referring to some other group of sins, you will have to specify what they are.

There to many possibilities to evaluate nor would it be fruitful. The church teaching are clear god put man and woman together and no man is to put asunder. Now in a quick summary after her conversion she continued relations with a man she knew had a sacramental marriage impediment. She freely exchanged vows with full knowledge of impediments. It is only after obtaining a civil marriage standard does she claim to need celibacy.
2361
“Sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is not something simply biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.”

Part 1

 

[Texas_Roofer]

Part 2

Your sentence makes no sense.
The Ordinary is the Bishop of the diocese. ……
There is nothing in the OP’s post about the bishop. Her post is about advice given to the woman by a priest and by a nun. .

You are correct, I did not realize that the “licit” section of canonical law which speak of the ordinary performing sacraments does allow the transfer of the term Ordinary to Priests given faculty. I am sorry I errored .

What is it he supposedly did? What will “all go away?” .

The poster claimed the Church had given guidance which supposedly opposed the Priest’s comments . If this is correct the Priest should be informed of Church’s guidance. I was asking for access to that guidance.

……………Natural marriage clearly has nothing to this situation. Both parties are baptized. They are currently in an invalid marriage.
A natural marriage is a valid marriage between two unbaptized persons or one unbaptized and one baptized person.

Again this refers to the marriages of Record in the catholic church which is not all marriages god has imposed. This is again the key misunderstanding. That is why there are tribunal because marriages of record can be incorrect. The tribunal does not decide marriage it corrects marriages of record when sufficient proof of error in the Record exits.

I hope that helps and thank you for your answers

 

[Texas_Roofer]

Both parties in the OP were baptized Catholic. This means that if they have a marriage, it is not a natural marriage, but a sacramental marriage.

The impediments prevent sacraments. The term Natural is not restricted to the context of use it the records of catholic offices

They attempted to marry before a Justice of the Peace, therefore their marriage is not valid. Coupled with Canon 1055, their marriage is not valid, not natural, not sacramental.

Again that same crazy concept, these people married civil the civil marriage is valid. Their civil marriage is not under catholic authority. Similarly they may or may not be married under god’s guide for marriage ( I will not judge such). They are not sacramentally married we have all agreed on that.

Yes, the presence of children is completely irrelevant to whether a marriage exists or not.

children are never irrelevant particularly when parents place personal desire above parental responsibility.

 

[Joe_5859]

Eliza,

In light of the new details, their advice seems even more ill-advised as it wasn’t even the primary point of her coming to them. But, as has been said, I suppose it’s best not to dwell any longer on how bad the advice was. Better for Jane to talk to someone else who will not try to steer her in the wrong direction.

As far as the annulment process goes, you can file in either the diocese the couple was married in or in the diocese where the couple currently resides. You can start with your parish priest, or you can simply start by calling the diocesan Marriage Tribunal (who’s contact info should be on the diocesan website). One person I knew was too embarassed to tell their parish priest until they knew it was all going to have a favorable outcome. I don’t know that it’s advisable to keep your parish priest out of the loop (and he’ll have to know eventually, particularly when Joe and Jane go to get married in the Church), but it is possible to at least get the ball rolling without getting him involved. At least, this is how it is in some dioceses. It may not be that way in every diocese. In any case, a phone call to the Tribunal would clear that up.

Here is the website for the Tribunal Office for the Diocese of Rochester (presuming that you and your friend are in the same diocese): http://www.dor.org/Tribunal/index.htm. There is a phone number and emails to contact anyone in the office, along with an FAQ and other pertinent info.

 

[Seatuck]

Texas Roofer

I’ve never seen any magisterial representation of an invalid christian marriage being a natural marriage. I’ve only heard a valid marriage between two unbaptized or one of each referred to as a “natural” marriage. Christians by virtue of their baptism do not have a natural marriage they have a sacramental marriage. The way you use it is unique to you as far as I can tell . Can you provide a reference for where the church refers to a “natural marriage” in the context you use it, please.

Look at page 50 of this book for instance. It mentions Christian and good and natural marriages as if they are two different things.

books.google.com/books?id=Wr56nzEZU7gC&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=catholic+church±+good+and+natural+marriage&source=bl&ots=EDN9xIDqgd&sig=rCakvBq7PuS_4frhIIXbPjQyV98&hl=en&ei=XYJQS72sHcSZ8Abhu6WlCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=catholic%20church%20-%20good%20and%20natural%20marriage&f=false

 

[NeelyAnn]

From the ST. Cloud Diocese:

**The Annulment Process:
Questions & Answers
For Saint Cloud, Minnesota **

---

Introduction

The institution of marriage, by which a man and a woman become one in a partnership of the whole of life, was established by God. Moreover, the marriage covenant between two baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament. So sacred is the bond of marriage, that Christ Himself declared that what God has joined together no one is to divide. When a man and a woman exchange consent to marry, when they say, “I do,” they agree to enter that perpetual and ever faithful bond of marriage which is directed to their own well being, and to the procreation and education of children.

Sadly, however, the life of a marriage can be a fragile thing. Divorce has become one of the familiar events of our day. Many marriages are not successful in spite of good intentions of the spouses. This is true even when a family has been established, and the marriage has lasted for many years. The Church attempts always to be as sensitive and understanding as possible to the stress and pain that all this brings to people. The Office of the Tribunal of the Diocese of St. Cloud exists largely to help all those who are divorced (and with a possible remarriage) who now seek a clarification of their status in the Church.

Once a marriage is entered into between any two persons, Catholic, Protestant, or non-Christian, it is presumed to be a valid and binding union until the contrary can be proven. And as long as a person is bound to a previous valid marriage, the Church does not permit a second marriage to take place. The Church has established certain procedures by which persons can attempt to prove that a previous marriage was not valid or binding, thereby assuring that they are free to marry according to the rites of the Church. This usually involves those persons who seek to marry in the Church, but have been previously married. However, others too may need the assistance of the Tribunal. For example, divorced Catholics may want to settle the status of a previous marriage that ended in divorce even though they have no immediate plans to remarry.

There are many misconceptions about what a declaration of nullity in the Catholic Church actually is. The following information is an attempt to answer the most frequently asked questions about annulments.

1. What is a Declaration of Nullity (annulment)?

A declaration of nullity states that, according to Church law, a given marriage was not valid (and therefore not binding) at the time a couple spoke their marriage vows. A person asks this Office to look at a previous marriage which has ended in divorce, and, if possible, to issue a declaration that this previous marriage no longer binds either party to the union. In no way should this process be thought of as a type of “Catholic Divorce.” A declaration of nullity states that a marriage was invalid from the beginning. A civil divorce, on the other hand, asserts that a marriage, valid or not, is dissolved. The Catholic Church does not grant divorces.

Neither is an annulment a statement that a marriage never existed civilly. Rather, it is a determination that certain conditions were present at the time the marriage was entered that made it an invalid union according to Catholic Church teaching. The civil effects and recognition of that marriage remain intact and unchanged.

Moreover, an annulment is not a statement that the marriage was entered into in bad faith by either of the parties. It is not a statement of who caused the marriage to fail or who was most guilty for its failure. Those are certainly important questions for a person to ask. But they are not the questions a Tribunal must answer.

The annulment process, in its most simple form, involves any person coming to the Church and asking to be heard. Information is gathered by us and in the end, we answer that person’s request: the marriage was invalid or valid according to the laws of the Church.

2. Does an annulment have anything to do with civil law?

No. In the United States, a declaration that a marriage was invalid from the start has no effect before the laws of any state. It does not affect anything that is determined by civil law such as alimony, child custody, visitation rights, division of property, legitimacy of the children, etc. It pertains only to the internal governance of the Catholic Church.

3. Does an annulment affect the legitimacy of children?

No. The legitimacy of children is determined by the laws of the states. Just as a divorce does not make children illegitimate, neither does an annulment granted by the Church. The laws of the Church state that children born of a supposedly valid union are legitimate children. Therefore, if the marriage is later shown to have been invalid, the status of the children remains unchanged: they are legitimate.

4. Who can apply for an annulment?

Almost always, a person seeking an annulment is someone who has been married, is now divorced and wishes to marry again, specifically in the Catholic Church.

The rest can be found on their website, follow the link above…

 

[NeelyAnn]

From the Diocese of Trenton:

The Tribunal: Frequently Asked Questions

Q. How does the Tribunal assist divorced persons?

**A. **When a divorced person has remarried, or wishes to remarry in the Catholic Church, the Tribunal assists in preparing a case for the Church annulment or dissolution of that person’s previous marriage, or in determining whether a former spouse has died.

Q. What is a Church annulment?

**A. **Unlike a divorce, which states that a marriage that once existed no longer does, an annulment is a declaration by the Catholic Church that the prior union never had the binding force that characterizes marriage. An annulment does not deny the reality of the wedding or the experience of the spouses during married life, but rather says that because something was seriously defective when the bride and groom spoke their wedding vows, the marriage lacked the binding force that Jesus taught. (Mk 10:7-12; Mt 5:31-32; Lk 16:18)

Q. What is a dissolution of marriage?

A. When two people enter a marriage and one or both are not baptized, or when the marriage is not consummated after the wedding ceremony, the Pope may grant a dissolution of that union. Requests for dissolutions are prepared by a Tribunal and then sent to Rome for action by offices designated for that purpose.

Q. Who needs a Church annulment or dissolution?

A. Anyone, Catholic or not, who was previously married and whose former spouse is still alive, and who wants to marry someone else in a Catholic ceremony needs some action or decision through a Catholic Church Tribunal about the former marriage.

Q. When do persons who are not Catholic need this service?

**A.**The Catholic Church respects as valid the marriages of persons who are not Catholic. If a divorced person who is not Catholic wants to marry a Catholic, our Church requires proof that the prior marriage never had the binding force that Jesus taught.

Q. What is the status of children of a marriage after a Church annulment or dissolution?

A. Children become and remain legitimate when or because a wedding ceremony has taken place. They can never lose that legitimacy even after an annulment or dissolution. No one can use a Church annulment or dissolution to claim he or she no longer has parental relationship with, or obligation toward, the children.

Q. Can a wedding date be set for a person who has been previously married?

A. In the Diocese of Trenton no wedding date may be set until the freedom of a person to marry is established with a death certificate of the prior spouse or a Catholic Church annulment or dissolution of the prior marriage.

See the link above for more Q & A.

 

[NeelyAnn]

From the website of St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Trenton:

Annulment and Dissolution Guidelines

Marriage and the Tribunal

The Catholic Church believes that marriage is a lifetime exclusive partnership between a man and a woman, in which they give and receive mutual help and love, and from their union bring forth and raise children. **When Catholics **and Orthodox Christians marry according to the requirements of their churches, and when people of other denominations marry anywhere according to the requirements of civil law, the Catholic Church presumes they marry validly. If husband and wife are both baptized, the Church also presumes their marriage is a sacrament. **In the tradition of the Catholic Church, a valid marriage that is also consummated and a sacrament cannot be set aside by any human power. **

Because it is a lifetime commitment, the decision to marry is perhaps the most serious decision most people have to make about their personal lives. So much of the person is invested in the decision, so much is expected in terms of time, energy, emotion and resources, that when a couple marries, divorce is unthinkable. Yet the unthinkable has happened to so many couples, and the reality of divorce is so full of stress and pain, that the Catholic Church seeks to reach out to divorced people in an effort to help heal the wounds while supporting the permanence of a sacramental union.

In its effort to assist the divorced, the Church considers whether the marriage now broken lacked one or more of the elements of a valid, sacramental, consummated marriage. If the consideration shows that it was not valid, the Church declares that the marriage never had the binding force that characterizes marriage. If it was not consummated or was never a sacrament, the Church can dispense from the bond of marriage.

Ordinarily one seeks and obtains such decision through the Office of the Tribunal. The Tribunal is a church court set up in a diocese to assist the bishop in giving timely judgment to individuals who request it. While empowered to consider other types of cases, the tribunal most frequently deals with petitions for the church annulment, dissolution or dispensation of broken marriages.

In studying and deciding these petitions, the tribunal seeks only the spiritual good of the people involved. It makes no attempt to place blame for the breakup of the union. There are no civil effects to its decision. It does not make children illegitimate. It cannot question a child’s paternity. It can not influence a civil court to set or change terms of civil divorce, child custody and support or property settlement. If a marriage is declared null by the Tribunal, or dissolved by a privilege or dispensed by the Pope, both spouses then are free to marry someone in the Catholic Church. As a result of that freedom, the Catholic spouse or spouses in a new union are enabled to participate fully in the life of their church.

Reasons and Grounds

Because there are many reasons why marriage may lack one or more of its basic elements, it is not possible to list and explain them all here. Almost all of them, however, correspond to one or the other of the following questions:

Was the marriage ceremony legally acceptable to the Catholic Church?
**Were both spouses free to marry each other? **
Was each spouse adequately prepared to understand, accept and fulfill the rights and obligations of marriage?
Did each spouse intend to accept and fulfill what, in the Church’s tradition, has been taught as the divine plan for marriage?
Was the marriage physically consummated after the wedding?
Were both spouses baptized Christians either before or during the marriage?
If someone can honestly answer NO to one or more of these questions as it applies to his or her marriage on the wedding day, then it is possible that some reason or ground exists for church annulment or dissolution.

 

[1ke]

The impediments prevent sacraments.

Impediments prevent validity.

Valid marriage produces a sacrament when both parties are baptized.

Valid marriage of the unbaptized produces a state of natural marriage.

The term Natural is not restricted to the context of use it the records of catholic offices

Which may or may not be true, but is totally irrelevant to the morality of the OP’s friend’s situation.

The OP did not ask about rights emanating from the state as in civil status of this relationship. The OP asked about rights, obligations, conditions and morality emanating from THE CHURCH.

Again that same crazy concept, these people married civil the civil marriage is valid.

It is a valid contract as far as the state is concerned. But that is not the question asked. The civil status of this marriage has NO bearing on the morality of the actions the OP asked about.

The question the OP asked pertains to the morality of engaging in sexal intercourse before it is a valid Catholic marriage. The Catholic Church ABOSULTELY has authority over marriage of Catholics and therefore deems this attempt at marriage to be INVALID. As in NOT valid. And, therefore, they cannot engage in intercourse.

Further, the Church does assert authority over marriages of those,baptized and unbaptized, who seek to marry a Catholic or become a Catholic. The tribunal is the competent authority to render decisions on nullity and validity in thos instances also.

Their civil marriage is not under catholic authority. Similarly they may or may not be married under god’s guide for marriage ( I will not judge such). They are not sacramentally married we have all agreed on that.

They are not VALIDLY married. Period. They may not engage in sexual relations as if they are without committing a gravely immoral act which is objectively a mortal sin.

children are never irrelevant particularly when parents place personal desire above parental responsibility.

Children are not relevant to the validity of marriage or the morality of the couple engaging in sexual intercourse until their marriage is convalidated, if it ever can be. He has an impediment of a prior bond, which may be found to be valid.

 

[Texas_Roofer]

Texas Roofer

I’ve never seen any magisterial representation of an invalid christian marriage being a natural marriage. I’ve only heard a valid marriage between two unbaptized or one of each referred to as a “natural” marriage. Christians by virtue of their baptism do not have a natural marriage they have a sacramental marriage. The way you use it is unique to you as far as I can tell . Can you provide a reference for where the church refers to a “natural marriage” in the context you use it, please.

Look at page 50 of this book for instance. It mentions Christian and good and natural marriages as if they are two different things.

books.google.com/books?id=Wr56nzEZU7gC&pg=PA50&lpg=PA50&dq=catholic+church±+good+and+natural+marriage&source=bl&ots=EDN9xIDqgd&sig=rCakvBq7PuS_4frhIIXbPjQyV98&hl=en&ei=XYJQS72sHcSZ8Abhu6WlCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CB4Q6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=catholic%20church%20-%20good%20and%20natural%20marriage&f=false

There would be no reason for the Church to do such. The problem here Seatuck is that in the millions of similar affirmation they mainly use the term “marriage”. See sacraments do not exist outside the Church.

 

[NeelyAnn]

Part 2
You are correct, I did not realize that the “licit” section of canonical law which speak of the ordinary performing sacraments does allow the transfer of the term Ordinary to Priests given faculty. I am sorry I errored . The poster claimed the Church had given guidance which supposedly opposed the Priest’s comments . If this is correct the Priest should be informed of Church’s guidance. I was asking for access to that guidance. Again this refers to the marriages of Record in the catholic church which is not all marriages god has imposed. This is again the key misunderstanding. That is why there are tribunal because marriages of record can be incorrect. The tribunal does not decide marriage it corrects marriages of record when sufficient proof of error in the Record exits.

I hope that helps and thank you for your answers

Cardinal: For remarried, Communion without annulment not possible

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) – While the Catholic Church seeks better ways to reach out to divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, **the fact that they may not receive Communion “is not disputed or disputable,”**said Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo.

"They are in an objective situation that goes against the will of God and does not permit them to receive Communion," said the cardinal, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family.

In an Oct. 27 interview with the Rome newspaper La Repubblica, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said that while the Oct. 2-23 Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist recognized the “painful and dramatic situations” of Catholics barred from the Eucharist "no modification of this doctrine is possible."

The church’s teaching that the marriage bond is unbreakable is based on the words of Christ, and the church has no authority to overturn that teaching, the cardinal said.

Catholics who remarry without having obtained an annulment of their original union – a declaration that the marriage was invalid from the beginning – can receive Communion only “if they promise to live as brother and sister without sexual relations,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo criticized the media for giving the impression that “this was an open question, as if doors were open for the future, creating expectations for a possible change.”

German Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told reporters in Rome Oct. 24 that the synod discussions made it clear that “the problem of the divorced and remarried is very much a burning question.”

While the synod did not advocate any specific changes in church policy, Cardinal Kasper said, “Every bishop in the Western countries knows this is a serious problem, so I cannot imagine the discussion is closed.”

Cardinal Kasper also pointed to questions raised by Pope Benedict XVI in July during a meeting with priests in northern Italy. The pope insisted compassion was not a good enough reason to give Communion to someone in an irregular marriage, but “given these people’s situation of suffering it must be studied.”

The pope told the priests “a particularly painful situation is that of those who were married in the church, but were not really believers and did so just for tradition, and then finding themselves in a new, nonvalid marriage, convert, find the faith and feel excluded from the sacrament.”

Pope Benedict said that when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he asked several bishops’ conferences and experts to study the problem, which in effect was “a sacrament celebrated without faith.”

He said he had thought that the church marriage could be considered invalid because the faith of the couple celebrating the sacrament was lacking.

“But from the discussions we had, I understood that the problem was very difficult” and that further study was necessary, the pope had said.

Cardinal Lopez Trujillo told La Repubblica that at the July meeting "the pope declared quite clearly that there was no possibility for them (the divorced and civilly remarried) to receive the Eucharist. He did say that they should be treated with mercy."

As for Cardinal Kasper’s remarks, Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said, “I think he wanted to restate the pastoral aspect of the matter and what he was saying was not understood.”

"This is not an open question. When the Lord commands, the bishops and the faithful must obey," Cardinal Lopez Trujillo said.

END