Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Half of marriages aren’t valid?

Half of marriages aren’t valid?

Last updated on: August 5, 2014 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Half of marriages aren’t valid? 2014-08-04T21:24:31-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Roman Catholics don’t believe in divorce. But they do allow for annulments. These involve ecclesiastical tribunals that rule that a valid marriage never existed in the first place. If it was determined that a couple was too young and didn’t know what they were doing or that they didn’t understand the Catholic theology of marriage, their marriage could be declared invalid. Despite receiving the sacrament of marriage in their wedding, despite living together for decades, despite having children and raising them to adulthood, they weren’t really married, thus ratifying their civil divorce and allowing them to marry someone else.

Catholics who do get a divorce and remarry without an annulment (which is a very expensive and time-consuming process) incur automatic excommunication, meaning that they are not allowed to receive Holy Communion. This affects lots of people, as you can imagine, and cuts seriously into church attendance. So the church is reconsidering its practice, trying to find a way to allow remarried people to take Communion.

A leader of that effort is the retired German archbishop Cardinal Walter Kasper, who, in the course of an interview in Commonweal Magazine, dropped this bombshell that, strangely, has drawn little attention: “I’ve spoken to the pope himself about this, and he said he believes that 50 percent of marriages are not valid.”

From Merciful God, Merciful Church | Commonweal Magazine:

I’ve spoken to the pope himself about this, and he said he believes that 50 percent of marriages are not valid. Marriage is a sacrament. A sacrament presupposes faith. And if the couple only want a bourgeois ceremony in a church because it’s more beautiful, more romantic, than a civil ceremony, you have to ask whether there was faith, and whether they really accepted all the conditions of a valid sacramental marriage—that is, unity, exclusivity, and also indissolubility.

Half of all people who think they are married aren’t really married? In context, it would appear that the pope was referring to the marriages of Catholics–though by the standards referred to, it would appear that no non-Catholics can be married–but think about this. My wife and I were arguably too young and didn’t know what we were doing, so, if we were Catholic, are we not married, even though we are now old and knowledgeable?

Imagine a Catholic couple who just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. If they married back then for “bourgeois” reasons–they wanted to be respectable; all of their friends were doing it; a church wedding is “romantic”–their marriage, if the Cardinal is correct, is invalid. So they have been living in sin for 50 years. Their children are technically illegitimate. In the Catholic accounting system that numbers every sin, they have committed countless acts of fornication. One would hope that when they die, the couple could expiate their sins by a few thousand years in the fires of Purgatory, but it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that, in terms of Roman Catholic soteriology, dying with so many mortal sins unconfessed without due penitence would land them both in Hell.

Note too how Lutherans actually have a higher view of the Sacraments than Catholics. Cardinal Kasper says that “a sacrament presupposes faith,” so that if a couple didn’t have faith in the sense of a full understanding of the Catholic theology of marriage, the sacrament wasn’t efficacious. Whereas Lutherans believe that a Sacrament creates faith. For Lutherans, marriage is not a Sacrament but a Vocation, but the external word (“I now pronounce you husband and wife”; “What God has joined together let not man put asunder”) leaves no doubt that a marriage has, in fact, been entered into. Also, to the point at issue, whereas Catholics believe you have to be, in effect, sinless in order to receive the Sacraments, Lutherans believe that the Sacraments are for sinners and that they convey Christ’s forgiveness of sins.

Test your marriage by measuring your wedding day by the grounds for annulment in the Catholic Church.

HT: Ross Douthat

Previous Post

August 5, 2014

Fact-checking sermons

Next Post

August 6, 2014 A true comic book movie

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"While she worked for Trump she was a tool's tool!"

reg

Luther on Tools

"I know wired earbuds are making a comeback (I never stopped using them as I ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Jephthah's daughter?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Deborah Ruth Miriam Unnamed

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »