Ratzinger On the Indissolubility of Marriage and Pastoral Practice

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3 responses to “Ratzinger On the Indissolubility of Marriage and Pastoral Practice”

1. 

   March 25, 2011

   Fr. Thomas

   As far as anyone can tell, however, Ratzinger no longer believes that this is a good idea.

   A concrete supporting argument for this, i.e. that in fact it is not a good idea, is that even if in the end it is true that the remarried couple are doing as well as they can, i.e. separation would be wrong and abstinence is a practical impossibility, it does not follow that they should be admitted to communion, because this would be a cause of scandal. It would cause scandal precisely because it would lead others to suppose that if they divorce and remarry, in the end the Church will accept it, and therefore such acceptance will lead others to fall into this sin. For the sake of the common good of the Church, therefore, it is better not to admit them to communion, even in fact the situation cannot be improved.

   Reply
   1. 

      March 26, 2011

      Joseph Bolin

      There is in fact evidence that he no longer believes it to be possible for the Church to take a position such as he proposed, as you can from the two more recent posts. It is difficult to say for sure, however, since even in that article he says that the Church “can, of itself, only live and teach ‘according to the teaching of the Gospel and the Apostle’ “.

      The argument you make seems certainly true. However, it does not seem specific to marriage, but to be equally an argument against many kinds of reconciliation, yet not a decisive argument. E.g., it seems an equally valid argument against allowing reconciliation through penance for particularly serious crimes of a kind that tend to be performed deliberately, rather than out of passion, or against allowing reconciliation multiple times through penance for serious crimes, as, indeed, St. Augustine explains the justification of the early Church’s single allowed public penance: “for reasons of prudence and for the sake of the salvation of souls the Church’s discipline provides opportunity for humbling oneself in penance only once, lest the medicine be seen as cheap, and thus less useful for the sick, seeing as the less it is despised, the more salvific it will be” (St. Augustine, Epistle 153)

      The second of the reasons in fact given in Familiaris Consortio and in the CDF’s statement seems to be more proper to marriage, and for that reason probably stronger: namely that allowing such reconciliation would occasion or lead to erroneous opinions about the indissolubility of marriage.

      Reply
2. 

   January 4, 2015

   Old-English Ascent

   Sorry run that one by me again:

   “…namely that allowing such reconciliation would occasion or lead to erroneous opinions about the indissolubility of marriage…”

   Wow! I thought mind reading was impossible. And future mind reading doubly impossible!!

   Also to say that reconciliation (“breaking down the barrier that lies between us”) is wrong – is wrong.

   Example argument by parallel: “Well we can’t have sinners getting reconciled with God, in case someone, somewhere, in the future thinks wrong thoughts – so lets stick with making sure sinners can’t reconcile with God”.

   If your worried that people are/may get-the-wrong-end-of-the-stick . . . talk to them. You never know, it might work.

   Yours

   Old-English Ascent

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