My jaw dropped when I read the latest from Benedict XVI . . . [Akin]

[dans0622]

… Namely, marriages between the baptised where it can be shown one of the baptised was no more than a “club Catholic or Christian” (ie had received the sacraments by no more than an accident of birth but never really believed) then that marriage may be dissolved on the grounds the sacramental bond was never etasablished despite baptism.

As I have stated previously on this forum, I believe it is already in place as a possible (but rarely used) criterion available to judges at Marriage Tribunals. This was told me by a Canon Lawyer but I have no corroborating references to confirm that and have never heard of this before. …

Hello,

Incorrect positions and practices may well exist at this or that Tribunal, or be advanced by this or that canon lawyer. That being said, such a “possible but rarely used criterion” is so obviously contrary to the law that even I, in my most pessimistic/cynical moment, doubt it is actually used. But, perhaps I am not yet as pessimistic/cynical as I should be. Be that as it may, I hope you never hear of it again as long as the law (and the theology it is based upon) remain as they are (cf. c. 1055.2).

Dan

 

[Blue_Horizon]

I agree, but at the time Kasper addressed the Consistory in Feb. 2014, PE Benedict had NOT yet emended his 1972 writing. .

Are you able to source definitive texts that show EP Benedict himself was responsible for the 1972 ommission in his collected works rather than,say, his editor (AP Mueller I believe)?

I have not yet found anything that comes close myself.

 

[Blue_Horizon]

Hello,

Incorrect positions and practices may well exist at this or that Tribunal, or be advanced by this or that canon lawyer. That being said, such a “possible but rarely used criterion” is so obviously contrary to the law …

Dan

Dan I can only quote PE Benedict below who disagrees with you as late as 2011.
It requires more research and investigation…meaning it is an open question for sincere Catholics too.

1998 [PE Benedict]
Further study is required, however, concerning the question of whether non-believing Christians — baptized persons who never or who no longer believe in God — can truly enter into a sacramental marriage. In other words, it needs to be clarified whether every marriage between two baptized persons is ipso facto a sacramental marriage. In fact, the Code states that only a “valid” marriage between baptized persons is at the same time a sacrament (cf. cic, can. 1055, § 2). Faith belongs to the essence of the sacrament; what remains to be clarified is the juridical question of what evidence of the “absence of faith” would have as a consequence that the sacrament does not come into being. -
(Reprinted 11/30/11 in L’Osservatore Romano)

 

[dans0622]

Dan I can only quote PE Benedict below who disagrees with you as late as 2011.
It requires more research and investigation…meaning it is an open question for sincere Catholics too. …

Hello,

I am not disagreeing with anything about studying/reflecting on this question. At the same time, law (cf. canon 1055.2), and theology (CCC 1601, 1617) is crystal clear and any canon lawyer or Tribunal who says it is now acceptable, in any situation, to say that a marriage between two baptized people was valid, yet not a sacrament and so dissoluble, is totally wrong. This is not an open question for us who are supposed to apply the law as it is.

Besides that, I doubt any development will be in the direction of a marriage among Christians being accepted as valid but not sacramental. Instead, as Pope Francis suggested in his recent address to the Roman Rota, the problem of faithless Christians attempting marriage can be considered under the heading of error which determines the will, and thus makes marriage invalid (c. 1099).

Dan

 

[Sirach2]

Are you able to source definitive texts that show EP Benedict himself was responsible for the 1972 ommission in his collected works rather than,say, his editor (AP Mueller I believe)?

I have not yet found anything that comes close myself.

I found only this paragraph, which suggests it was amended by Benedict:
Yet in a newly-published edition of his collected works, available in German at the end of November,** Ratzinger has amended the text** of his 1972 essay. The emendation was first noted by Matthias Drobinski, of the German daily ‘Suddeutsche Zeitung’.