Catholic theologians and commentators have expressed profound displeasure with Thursday remarks from Pope Francis in which he suggested most modern marriages are “invalid.”
“It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null,” the pope said during a question and answer at the Diocese of Rome’s pastoral congress. “Because they say ‘yes, for the rest of my life!’ but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t know.” (RELATED: Pope Francis Says Most Modern Marriages Are ‘Invalid’)
Prominent Catholic commentators were quick to disparage the pope’s suggestion.
New York Times columnist Ross Douthat took the pontiff to task on Twitter in a 17 tweet screed, calling Francis’ comment a “weird and un-Catholic counsel of despair.”
Michael Brendan Dougherty, senior correspondent at The Week who opines frequently on the Catholic Church, tweeted that the pope was wrong and deeply irresponsible.
Matthew Schmitz, literary editor at First Things, a theological and public affairs journal, endorsed Dougherty’s comments.
Theologians and canon lawyers were similarly disheartened.
Dr. Edward Peters, a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and the first layman appointed as an administrator at the Apostolic Signatura – the Vatican’s Supreme Court – wrote a rebuttal to the comments on his blog, In the Light of the Law. “The collapse of human nature presupposed for such a social catastrophe and the massive futility of the Church’s sanctifying mission among her own faithful evidenced by such a debacle would be—well, it would be the matrimonial version of nuclear winter,” his critique read. Peters is a canon lawyer, an expert in the practice of the law of the Catholic Church.
Peters previously addressed this issue when the same argument was made by Walter Cardinal Kasper, a German prelate whose controversial assertions have been the flashpoint of several theological battles within the Church in recent years. “I am stunned at the pastoral recklessness of such an assertion,” he wrote in 2014. “Simply stunned.”
Another canon lawyer, Edward Condon, posted the text of canon 1057 to his Twitter page without comment. Canon 1057 is the section of Church law which addresses the necessary elements of a valid marriage. Contra Francis, a valid marriage requires only legitimately manifested consent.
“The consent of the parties, legitimately manifested by persons qualified by law, makes marriage; no human power can supply this consent.”
— Ed Condon (@canonlawyered) June 16, 2016
Condon’s annotation was paralleled by Dr. Chad Pecknold, professor of theology at the Catholic University of America.
The idea that marriages may not be valid in many instances has been the subject of wide speculation among theologians in recent decades. In 2005, Pope Benedict XVI revealed that he previously convened several bishops conferences to explore the validity of marriages in which both parties were not seriously engaged with the meaning of the sacraments. Though no definitive answer was reached, he acknowledged the question was complicated. Massimo Faggioli, theology professor at Villanova, remarked that Francis had said what many in the academic world suspected.
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