Synod needs your prayers

  • Thread starter Thread starter zz912
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

zz912

Guest
bostonpilot.org/opinion/article.asp?ID=174605

Msgr Garrity penned an op-ed for the Boston diocesan newspaper The Pilot. He disagrees with Church teaching on marriage being lifelong.

Without absolutizing history or denying the truth of the Gospel, common sense offers a different approach to the challenges that we face with regard to divorce and remarriage. **It is ludicrous to assert that divorced couples who have found love and fidelity with new spouses are still recognized by the Church as being married to their former spouses after the passage of many years. It is equally untenable (and disrespectful) to try to convince these happily married couples that, in fact, their relationships are sinful. **Moreover, the Church’s current prohibition regarding the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried couples would seem to be at odds with the consistent teaching of the Gospel about love, forgiveness and mercy. When the young man asks Jesus, “How many times must I forgive my brother?” he says not seven times but I say 77 times. And many times, divorces happen without anyone really being at fault and /or over the objections of one party.

So where does all this leave us today. Among the givens, we know that many divorced and remarried Catholics have left the practice of their faith precisely because the official teaching of the Church makes them feel unwelcome. Some have gone to other churches but many more have just simply walked away and not reconnected anywhere. Our hearts should go out to these folks. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Pope Francis finds enough support at the Synod to do something dramatic about these difficult situations! **Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could welcome people in second or third marriages to join us at the Eucharistic table, if they so desire! **Isn’t this what real evangelization needs to be about in the 21st century!
 
Reality comes in qualitatively different layers, as do so many things. Implicit in the Msgr’s statement is his believe that his perceptions of reality is more perfected than that of the Holy See. I think I will go with the Church on this, even though I believe the Church already welcomes those remarried and that eventually they will be allowed Holy Communion.
 
Speaking hypothetically then, how many years into a second marriage would it take for the first marriage to be considered invalidated? (assuming no declaration of nullity)
 
zz912 said:
**It is ludicrous to assert that divorced couples who have found love and fidelity with new spouses are still recognized by the Church as being married to their former spouses after the passage of many years. It is equally untenable (and disrespectful) to try to convince these happily married couples that, in fact, their relationships are sinful. **Moreover, the Church’s current prohibition regarding the reception of Holy Communion by divorced and remarried couples would seem to be at odds with the consistent teaching of the Gospel about love, forgiveness and mercy.
Click to expand...
👍

We can only hope!!
 
JimG said:
Speaking hypothetically then, how many years into a second marriage would it take for the first marriage to be considered invalidated? (assuming no declaration of nullity)
Click to expand...
Perpetuation of sin aggravates it, not alleviates.
 
It isn’t some rule from the Holy See. It is from the mouth of Christ himself. People said it’s too difficult then as well, and divorce was just as prevalent.
 
JimG said:
Speaking hypothetically then, how many years into a second marriage would it take for the first marriage to be considered invalidated? (assuming no declaration of nullity)
Click to expand...
I think we should let the Supreme Court decide, being that “marriage” according to US law is clearly their own invention.
 
Mumbles140 said:
I think we should let the Supreme Court decide, being that “marriage” according to US law is clearly their own invention.
Click to expand...
😃 Oh, this gave me a laugh! That’s all the synod needs–some mystical thinking on the subject of marriage by a few of our Justices.
 
SMH_2015 said:
👍

We can only hope!!
Click to expand...
Hope is what the mercy that is central to the teachings of Jesus provides, but it seems as though this message has largely been lost to the world. In ways this hardness of heart seems like a return to the eye-for-an-eye ways of the Old Testament, but the teaching of mercy is there too, in Exodus, in Jeremiah, in Psalms and in many other Old Testament books. But hope and mercy endure and will yet prevail. This is the teaching.
 
Thomas_White said:
Hope is what the mercy that is central to the teachings of Jesus provides, but it seems as though this message has largely been lost to the world. In ways this hardness of heart seems like a return to the eye-for-an-eye ways of the Old Testament, but the teaching of mercy is there too, in Exodus, in Jeremiah, in Psalms and in many other Old Testament books. But hope and mercy endure and will yet prevail. This is the teaching.
Click to expand...
What?
 
Well, there are several questions to be answered:
  1. Is marriage a binding lifetime union or not?
  2. Can a second marriage be valid if there is already an existing marriage by one or both of the parties?
    3.Can an existing prior marriage be presumed invalid by the existence of a second, presumably happy, marriage, in the absence of a declaration of nullity of the first marriage?
  3. Can the mere passage of time of a second (happy) marriage be used as evidence of the invalidity of the first marriage?
  4. Does the continued use of conjugal relations in an invalid second marriage prevent a person from receiving communion?
 
Seamus_L said:
And now there’s this breaking story which appears to be real. Major appeal by theologians urges Pope to delete ‘seriously defective’ Synod text on contraception lifesitenews.com/news/major-appeal-by-theologians-urges-pope-to-delete-seriously-defective-synod?utm_source=LifePetitions+petition+signers&utm_campaign=20c9b82d63-9_14_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c5c75ce940-20c9b82d63-398670537
Click to expand...
This is interesting. I have wondered how ABC and Humane Vitae could be separated from the question of divorced and remarried Catholics who have not obtained an annullment receiving communion, a question that has received so much attention. It is this, Humae Vitae, and not the issue of the divorced and remarried, that is and has been for nearly half a century a scism between doctrine and the practice of a number of Catholics. It is real and not a discussion or debate.
 
Prophetic Voices are heard in Germany.

“This didn’t appear out of the blue. As with many other countries in the West, the trend began with the refusal to accept Humanae Vitae by the bishops, priests and laypeople some 50 years ago. A consequence of the “contraceptive mentality” is the failure to recognize the indissolubility of sacramental marriage and the modern massive breakdown of the family. When children are no longer at the center of the family, when they are denied existence rather than welcomed, love crumbles and spouses drift apart. It is therefore not surprising that marriages end more easily than they had before the widespread acceptance of contraception. Nor is it astonishing that a pervasive moral blindness results.”
 
JimG said:
Prophetic Voices are heard in Germany.

“This didn’t appear out of the blue. As with many other countries in the West, the trend began with the refusal to accept Humanae Vitae by the bishops, priests and laypeople some 50 years ago. A consequence of the “contraceptive mentality” is the failure to recognize the indissolubility of sacramental marriage and the modern massive breakdown of the family. When children are no longer at the center of the family, when they are denied existence rather than welcomed, love crumbles and spouses drift apart. It is therefore not surprising that marriages end more easily than they had before the widespread acceptance of contraception. Nor is it astonishing that a pervasive moral blindness results.”
Click to expand...
This is even more interesting. The Cardinal sees the question of divorced and married Catholics as a consequence of the rejection of Humanae Vitae. I did think the two issues could not be unrelated.
 
Thomas_White said:
This is even more interesting. The Cardinal sees the question of divorced and married Catholics as a consequence of the rejection of Humanae Vitae. I did think the two issues could not be unrelated.
Click to expand...
Indeed, I think that a great deal of the disastrous results of the sexual revolution can be attributed to widespread dissent from Humanae Vitae.

I have not, however, been invited to the Synod.
 
JimG said:
Indeed, I think that a great deal of the disastrous results of the sexual revolution can be attributed to widespread dissent from Humanae Vitae.

I have not, however, been invited to the Synod.
Click to expand...
Having read the article, it is worse than I ever thought. I can see this might be serious.
 
JimG said:
Speaking hypothetically then, how many years into a second marriage would it take for the first marriage to be considered invalidated? (assuming no declaration of nullity)
Click to expand...
And the natural follow up questions to yours:
  1. How many years into the third marriage would it take for the second marriage to be invalidated?
  2. What about 4th marriages? Why are we stopping at only 3? What about 5, 6 and 7th marriages?
 
zz912 said:
And the natural follow up questions to yours:
  1. How many years into the third marriage would it take for the second marriage to be invalidated?
  2. What about 4th marriages? Why are we stopping at only 3? What about 5, 6 and 7th marriages?
Click to expand...
What if Larry King becomes Catholic?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top