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Experts defend popes decision to marry couples living 'in sin'

No evidence that Francis is instituting 'sweeping changes'
Experts defend popes decision to marry couples living 'in sin'

A couple newly married by Pope Francis receives communion in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday (Photo by Lauren Cater/CNA)

Published: September 16, 2014 03:40 AM GMT
Updated: September 15, 2014 04:41 PM GMT

Pope Francis’ witnessing of marriages between Catholics who cohabited or who have had annulments is not a change, but is part of the Church’s effort to bring people to Jesus Christ, said two experts on Christian marriage.

“I think there is a perception out there, especially in some media circles, that Pope Francis is trying to undermine what the Church has taught and what the Church has practiced,” Catholic University of America moral theology professor John Grabowski said on Monday.

“I see absolutely no evidence of that. When he’s pressed on issues concerning the Church’s teaching on marriage, on sexuality, he is very firm, saying he is ‘a son of the Church’,” Grabowski continued. “What he wants to do is simply put the Church’s focus on mercy, on an encounter with Christ as the heart of its life.”

On Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated the marriages of 20 couples from the Diocese of Rome. In his homily, he told them that Jesus Christ “will bring them healing by the merciful love which pours forth from the Cross, with the strength of his grace that renews and sets married couples and families once again on the right path.”

Some media reports have focused on whether some of the couples had annulments or had lived together before marrying. Time magazine claimed that the marriages “hint at coming changes” on divorce and remarriage. The New York Times claimed that the weddings mean that Pope Francis “looks past tradition.”

However, Grabowski said he saw no concrete evidence that the Pope is “instituting any kind of sweeping changes”. In fact, the Pope’s actions in marrying cohabiting couples reflect common Catholic practice.

“It’s not just Pope Francis, it’s the whole Church who wants to encourage people who are living in a way that contradicts their baptismal dignity to stop living that way,” the professor said.

Msgr. Joaquín Llobell, author of the book Marriage Procedures in the Church, explained that the Catholic faith sees a distinction between a divorce and a recognition of an invalid marriage, commonly known as an annulment.

Civil divorce “breaks a valid marriage,” he said. By contrast, to annul a marriage doesn’t “break that which existed.” Rather, it is a declaration from the Church that a marriage “was never valid” to begin with.

 

Full Story: No scandal here: How the 20 couples married by Pope Francis were legit

Source: Catholic News Agency

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