Archbishop Müller: Care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to the question
of receiving the Eucharist
October 22, 2013: The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, has published an article in the Vatican newspaper,
L'Osservatore Romano, speaking about the issue of re-marriage and the reception of
the sacraments. He begins by re-affirming the Church's constant teaching that marriage
is indissoluble, and that this is testified to both in Scripture and Tradition. In
the article, Archbishop Müller acknowledges that modern misunderstandings over the
meaning of marriage leads to more marriages being invalid than in previous times,
but writes that couples should not decide for themselves whether or not their marriage
is null.
"Marriage is not simply about the relationship of two people to God,
it is also a reality of the Church, a sacrament, and it is not the individuals concerned
to decide on its validity, but rather for the Church, into which individuals are incorporated
by faith and baptism," he writes.
The Archbishop says he knows it is not an
easy teaching, but those who are divorced and remarried should know that they are
not alone, and the Church "as a community of salvation accompanies them on their journey."
"Clearly,
the care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to the question of receiving the
Eucharist," he writes. "It involves a much more wide-ranging pastoral approach, which
seeks to do justice to the different situations. It is important to realize that there
are other ways, apart from sacramental communion, of being in fellowship with God.
One can draw close to God by turning to him in faith, hope and charity, in repentance
and prayer. God can grant his closeness and his salvation to people on different paths,
even if they find themselves in a contradictory life situation."
Testimony
to the power of grace: On the indissolubility of marriage and the
debate concerning the civilly remarried and the sacraments
Archbishop
Gerhard Ludwig Müller
The problem concerning members of the faithful who have
entered into a new civil union after a divorce is not new. The Church has always taken
this question very seriously and with a view to helping the people who find themselves
in this situation. Marriage is a sacrament that affects people particularly deeply
in their personal, social and historical circumstances. Given the increasing number
of persons affected in countries of ancient Christian tradition, this pastoral problem
has taken on significant dimensions. Today even firm believers are seriously wondering:
can the Church not admit the divorced and remarried to the sacraments under certain
conditions? Are her hands permanently tied on this matter? Have theologians really
explored all the implications and consequences?
These questions must be explored
in a manner that is consistent with Catholic doctrine on marriage. A responsible pastoral
approach presupposes a theology that offers “the full submission of intellect and
will to God who reveals, freely assenting to the truth revealed by him” (Dei Verbum
5). In order to make the Church’s authentic doctrine intelligible, we must begin with
the word of God that is found in sacred Scripture, expounded in the Church’s Tradition
and interpreted by the Magisterium in a binding way.
The Testimony of Sacred
Scripture
Looking directly to the Old Testament for answers to our question
is not without its difficulties, because at that time marriage was not yet regarded
as a sacrament. Yet the word of God in the Old Covenant is significant for us to the
extent that Jesus belongs within this tradition and argues on the basis of it. In
the Decalogue, we find the commandment “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14),
but elsewhere divorce is presented as a possibility. According to Dt 24:1-4, Moses
lays down that a man may present his wife with a certificate of dismissal and send
her away from his house, if she no longer finds favour with him. Thereafter, both
husband and wife may embark upon a new marriage. In addition to this acceptance of
divorce, the Old Testament also expresses certain reservations in its regard. The
comparison drawn by the prophets between God’s covenant with Israel and the marriage
bond includes not only the ideal of monogamy, but also that of indissolubility. The
prophet Malachi expresses this clearly: “Do not be faithless to the wife of your youth
... with whom you have made a covenant” (Mal 2:14-15).
Above all, it was his
controversies with the Pharisees that gave Jesus occasion to address this theme. He
distanced himself explicitly from the Old Testament practice of divorce, which Moses
had permitted because men were “so hard of heart”, and he pointed to God’s original
will: “from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother and ... the two shall become one flesh. What
therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder” (Mk 10:5-9; cf. Mt 19:4-9;
Lk 16:18). The Catholic Church has always based its doctrine and practice upon these
sayings of Jesus concerning the indissolubility of marriage. The inner bond that joins
the spouses to one another was forged by God himself. It designates a reality that
comes from God and is therefore no longer at man’s disposal.
Today some exegetes
take the view that even in the Apostolic era these dominical sayings were applied
with a degree of flexibility: notably in the case of porneia/unchastity (cf. Mt 5:32;
19:9) and in the case of a separation between a Christian and a non-Christian partner
(cf. 1 Cor 7:12-15). The unchastity clauses have been the object of fierce debate
among exegetes from the beginning. Many take the view that they refer not to exceptions
to the indissolubility of marriage, but to invalid marital unions. Clearly, however,
the Church cannot build its doctrine and practice on controversial exegetical hypotheses.
She must adhere to the clear teaching of Christ.
Saint Paul presents the prohibition
on divorce as the express will of Christ: “To the married I give charge, not I but
the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, let
her remain single or else be reconciled to her husband) and that the husband should
not divorce his wife” (1 Cor 7:10-11). At the same time he permits, on his own authority,
that a non-Christian may separate from a partner who has become Christian. In this
case, the Christian is “not bound” to remain unmarried (1 Cor 7:12-16). On the basis
of this passage, the Church has come to recognize that only a marriage between a baptized
man and a baptized woman is a sacrament in the true sense, and only in this instance
does unconditional indissolubility apply. The marriage of the unbaptized is indeed
ordered to indissolubility, but can under certain circumstances – for the sake of
a higher good – be dissolved (privilegium Paulinum). Here, then, we are not dealing
with an exception to our Lord’s teaching. The indissolubility of sacramental marriage,
that is to say, marriage that takes place within the mystery of Christ, remains assured.
Of
greater significance for the biblical basis of the sacramental view of marriage is
the Letter to the Ephesians, where we read: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ
loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25). And shortly afterwards,
the Apostle adds: “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is a profound
one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church” (Eph 5:31-32). Christian
marriage is an effective sign of the covenant between Christ and the Church. Because
it designates and communicates the grace of this covenant, marriage between the baptized
is a sacrament.
The Testimony of the Church’s Tradition
The Church
Fathers and Councils provide important testimony regarding the way the Church’s position
evolved. For the Fathers, the biblical precepts on the subject are binding. They reject
the State’s divorce laws as incompatible with the teaching of Jesus. The Church of
the Fathers rejected divorce and remarriage, and did so out of obedience to the Gospel.
On this question, the Fathers’ testimony is unanimous.
In patristic times,
divorced members of the faithful who had civilly remarried could not even be readmitted
to the sacraments after a period of penance. Some patristic texts, however, seem to
imply that abuses were not always rigorously corrected and that from time to time
pastoral solutions were sought for very rare borderline cases.
In many regions,
greater compromises emerged later, particularly as a result of the increasing interdependence
of Church and State. In the East this development continued to evolve, and especially
after the separation from the See of Peter, it moved towards an increasingly liberal
praxis. In the Orthodox Churches today, there are a great many grounds for divorce,
which are mostly justified in terms of oikonomia, or pastoral leniency in difficult
individual cases, and they open the path to a second or third marriage marked by a
penitential character. This practice cannot be reconciled with God’s will, as expressed
unambiguously in Jesus’ sayings about the indissolubility of marriage. But it represents
an ecumenical problem that is not to be underestimated.
In the West, the Gregorian
reform countered these liberalizing tendencies and gave fresh impetus to the original
understanding of Scripture and the Fathers. The Catholic Church defended the absolute
indissolubility of marriage even at the cost of great sacrifice and suffering. The
schism of a “Church of England” detached from the Successor of Peter came about not
because of doctrinal differences, but because the Pope, out of obedience to the sayings
of Jesus, could not accommodate the demands of King Henry VIII for the dissolution
of his marriage.
The Council of Trent confirmed the doctrine of the indissolubility
of sacramental marriage and explained that this corresponded to the teaching of the
Gospel (cf. DH 1807). Sometimes it is maintained that the Church de facto tolerated
the Eastern practice. But this is not correct. The canonists constantly referred to
it as an abuse. And there is evidence that groups of Orthodox Christians on becoming
Catholic had to subscribe to an express acknowledgment of the impossibility of second
or third marriages.
The Second Vatican Council, in the Pastoral Constitution
Gaudium et Spes on “The Church in the Modern World”, presents a theologically and
spiritually profound doctrine of marriage. It upholds the indissolubility of marriage
clearly and distinctly. Marriage is understood as an all-embracing communion of life
and love, body and spirit, between a man and a woman who mutually give themselves
and receive one another as persons. Through the personally free act of their reciprocal
consent, an enduring, divinely ordered institution is brought into being, which is
directed to the good of the spouses and of their offspring and is no longer dependent
on human caprice: “As a mutual gift of two persons, this intimate union and the good
of the children impose total fidelity on the spouses and argue for an unbreakable
oneness between them” (no. 48). Through the sacrament God bestows a special grace
upon the spouses: “For as God of old made himself present to his people through a
covenant of love and fidelity, so now the Saviour of men and the Spouse of the Church
comes into the lives of married Christians through the sacrament of matrimony. He
abides with them thereafter so that just as he loved the Church and handed himself
over on her behalf, the spouses may love each other with perpetual fidelity through
mutual self-bestowal.” Through the sacrament the indissolubility of marriage acquires
a new and deeper sense: it becomes the image of God’s enduring love for his people
and of Christ’s irrevocable fidelity to his Church.
Marriage can be understood
and lived as a sacrament only in the context of the mystery of Christ. If marriage
is secularized or regarded as a purely natural reality, its sacramental character
is obscured. Sacramental marriage belongs to the order of grace, it is taken up into
the definitive communion of love between Christ and his Church. Christians are called
to live their marriage within the eschatological horizon of the coming of God’s kingdom
in Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God.
The Testimony of the Magisterium
in the Present Day
The Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio – issued
by John Paul II on 22 November 1981 in the wake of the Synod of Bishops on the Christian
family in the modern world, and of fundamental importance ever since – emphatically
confirms the Church’s dogmatic teaching on marriage. But it shows pastoral concern
for the civilly remarried faithful who are still bound by an ecclesially valid marriage.
The Pope shows a high degree of concern and understanding. Paragraph 84 on “divorced
persons who have remarried” contains the following key statements: 1. Pastors are
obliged, by love for the truth, “to exercise careful discernment of situations”. Not
everything and everyone are to be assessed in an identical way. 2. Pastors and parish
communities are bound to stand by the faithful who find themselves in this situation,
with “attentive love”. They too belong to the Church, they are entitled to pastoral
care and they should take part in the Church’s life. 3. And yet they cannot be admitted
to the Eucharist. Two reasons are given for this: a) “their state and condition of
life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which
is signified and effected by the Eucharist” b) “if these people were admitted to the
Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church's
teaching about the indissolubility of marriage”. Reconciliation through sacramental
confession, which opens the way to reception of the Eucharist, can only be granted
in the case of repentance over what has happened and a “readiness to undertake a way
of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage.” Concretely
this means that if for serious reasons, such as the children’s upbringing, the new
union cannot be dissolved, then the two partners must “bind themselves to live in
complete continence”. 4. Clergy are expressly forbidden, for intrinsically sacramental
and theological reasons and not through legalistic pressures, to “perform ceremonies
of any kind” for divorced people who remarry civilly, as long as the first sacramentally
valid marriage still exists.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s
statement of 14 September 1994 on reception of holy communion by divorced and remarried
members of the faithful emphasizes that the Church’s practice in this question “cannot
be modified because of different situations” (no. 5). It also makes clear that the
faithful concerned may not present themselves for holy communion on the basis of their
own conscience: “Should they judge it possible to do so, pastors and confessors ...
have the serious duty to admonish them that such a judgment of conscience openly contradicts
the Church's teaching” (no. 6). If doubts remain over the validity of a failed marriage,
these must be examined by the competent marriage tribunals (cf. no. 9). It remains
of the utmost importance, “with solicitous charity to do everything that can be done
to strengthen in the love of Christ and the Church those faithful in irregular marriage
situations. Only thus will it be possible for them fully to receive the message of
Christian marriage and endure in faith the distress of their situation. In pastoral
action one must do everything possible to ensure that this is understood not to be
a matter of discrimination but only of absolute fidelity to the will of Christ who
has restored and entrusted to us anew the indissolubility of marriage as a gift of
the Creator” (no. 10).
In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum
Caritatis of 22 February 2007, Benedict XVI summarizes the work of the Synod of Bishops
on the theme of the Eucharist and he develops it further. In No. 29 he addresses the
situation of divorced and remarried faithful. For Benedict XVI too, this is a “complex
and troubling pastoral problem”. He confirms “the Church's practice, based on Sacred
Scripture (cf. Mk 10:2- 12), of not admitting the divorced and remarried to the sacraments”,
but he urges pastors at the same time, to devote “special concern” to those affected:
in the wish that they “live as fully as possible the Christian life through regular
participation at Mass, albeit without receiving communion, listening to the word of
God, eucharistic adoration, prayer, participation in the life of the community, honest
dialogue with a priest or spiritual director, dedication to the life of charity, works
of penance, and commitment to the education of their children”. If there are doubts
concerning the validity of the failed marriage, these are to be carefully examined
by the competent marriage tribunals. Today’s mentality is largely opposed to the Christian
understanding of marriage, with regard to its indissolubility and its openness to
children. Because many Christians are influenced by this, marriages nowadays are probably
invalid more often than they were previously, because there is a lack of desire for
marriage in accordance with Catholic teaching, and there is too little socialization
within an environment of faith. Therefore assessment of the validity of marriage is
important and can help to solve problems. Where nullity of marriage cannot be demonstrated,
the requirement for absolution and reception of communion, according to the Church’s
established and approved practice, is that the couple live “as friends, as brother
and sister”. Blessings of irregular unions are to be avoided, “lest confusion arise
among the faithful concerning the value of marriage”. A blessing (bene-dictio: divine
sanctioning) of a relationship that contradicts the will of God is a contradiction
in terms.
During his homily at the Seventh World Meeting of Families in Milan
on 3 June 2012, Benedict XVI once again had occasion to speak of this painful problem:
“I should also like to address a word to the faithful who, even though they agree
with the Church’s teachings on the family, have had painful experiences of breakdown
and separation. I want you to know that the Pope and the Church support you in your
struggle. I encourage you to remain united to your communities, and I earnestly hope
that your dioceses are developing suitable initiatives to welcome and accompany you.”
The
most recent Synod of Bishops on the theme “New evangelization for the transmission
of the Christian faith” (7-28 October 2012) addressed once again the situation of
the faithful who after the failure of a marital relationship (not the failure of a
marriage, which being a sacrament still remains) have entered a new union and live
together without a sacramental marriage bond. In the concluding Message, the Synod
Fathers addressed those concerned as follows: “To all of them we want to say that
God’s love does not abandon anyone, that the Church loves them, too, that the Church
is a house that welcomes all, that they remain members of the Church even if they
cannot receive sacramental absolution and the Eucharist. May our Catholic communities
welcome all who live in such situations and support those who are in the path of conversion
and reconciliation.”
Observations based on Anthropology and Sacramental
Theology
The doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage is often met with
incomprehension in a secularized environment. Where the fundamental insights of Christian
faith have been lost, church affiliation of a purely conventional kind can no longer
sustain major life decisions or provide a firm foothold in the midst of marital crises
– as well as crises in priestly and religious life. Many people ask: how can I bind
myself to one woman or one man for an entire lifetime? Who can tell me what my marriage
will be like in ten, twenty, thirty, forty years? Is a definitive bond to one person
possible at all? The many marital relationships that founder today reinforce the scepticism
of young people regarding definitive life choices.
On the other hand, the ideal
– built into the order of creation – of faithfulness between one man and one woman
has lost none of its fascination, as is apparent from recent opinion surveys among
young people. Most of them long for a stable, lasting relationship, in keeping with
the spiritual and moral nature of the human person. Moreover, one must not forget
the anthropological value of indissoluble marriage: it withdraws the partners from
caprice and from the tyranny of feelings and moods. It helps them to survive personal
difficulties and to overcome painful experiences. Above all it protects the children,
who have most to suffer from marital breakdown.
Love is more than a feeling
or an instinct. Of its nature it is self-giving. In marital love, two people say consciously
and intentionally to one another: only you – and you for ever. The word of the Lord:
“What God has joined together” corresponds to the promise of the spouses: “I take
you as my husband ... I take you as my wife ... I will love, esteem and honour you,
as long as I live, till death us do part.” The priest blesses the covenant that the
spouses have sealed with one another before God. If anyone should doubt whether the
marriage bond is ontological, let him learn from the word of God: “He who made them
from the beginning made them male and female, and said: for this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one
flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh” (Mt 19:4-6).
For Christians,
the marriage of baptized persons incorporated into the Body of Christ has sacramental
character and therefore represents a supernatural reality. A serious pastoral problem
arises from the fact that many people today judge Christian marriage exclusively by
worldly and pragmatic criteria. Those who think according to the “spirit of the world”
(1 Cor 2:12) cannot understand the sacramentality of marriage. The Church cannot respond
to the growing incomprehension of the sanctity of marriage by pragmatically accommodating
the supposedly inevitable, but only by trusting in “the Spirit which is from God,
that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God” (1 Cor 2:12). Sacramental
marriage is a testimony to the power of grace, which changes man and prepares the
whole Church for the holy city, the new Jerusalem, the Church, which is prepared “as
a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev 21:2). The Gospel of the sanctity of marriage
is to be proclaimed with prophetic candour. By adapting to the spirit of the age,
a weary prophet seeks his own salvation but not the salvation of the world in Jesus
Christ. Faithfulness to marital consent is a prophetic sign of the salvation that
God bestows upon the world. “He who is able to receive this, let him receive it” (Mt
19:12). Through sacramental grace, married love is purified, strengthened and ennobled.
“Sealed by mutual faithfulness and hallowed above all by Christ's sacrament, this
love remains steadfastly true in body and in mind, in bright days or dark. It will
never be profaned by adultery or divorce” (Gaudium et Spes, 49). In the strength of
the sacrament of marriage, the spouses participate in God’s definitive, irrevocable
love. They can therefore be witnesses of God’s faithful love, but they must nourish
their love constantly through living by faith and love.
Admittedly there are
situations – as every pastor knows – in which marital cohabitation becomes for all
intents and purposes impossible for compelling reasons, such as physical or psychological
violence. In such hard cases, the Church has always permitted the spouses to separate
and no longer live together. It must be remembered, though, that the marriage bond
of a valid union remains intact in the sight of God, and the individual parties are
not free to contract a new marriage, as long as the spouse is alive. Pastors and Christian
communities must therefore take pains to promote paths of reconciliation in these
cases too, or, should that not be possible, to help the people concerned to confront
their difficult situation in faith.
Observations based on Moral Theology
It
is frequently suggested that remarried divorcees should be allowed to decide for themselves,
according to their conscience, whether or not to present themselves for holy communion.
This argument, based on a problematical concept of “conscience”, was rejected by a
document of the CDF in 1994. Naturally, the faithful must consider every time they
attend Mass whether it is possible to receive communion, and a grave unconfessed sin
would always be an impediment. At the same time they have the duty to form their conscience
and to align it with the truth. In so doing they listen also to the Church’s Magisterium,
which helps them “not to swerve from the truth about the good of man, but rather,
especially in more difficult questions, to attain the truth with certainty and to
abide in it” (Veritatis Splendor, 64). If remarried divorcees are subjectively convinced
in their conscience that a previous marriage was invalid, this must be proven objectively
by the competent marriage tribunals. Marriage is not simply about the relationship
of two people to God, it is also a reality of the Church, a sacrament, and it is not
for the individuals concerned to decide on its validity, but rather for the Church,
into which the individuals are incorporated by faith and baptism. “If the prior marriage
of two divorced and remarried members of the faithful was valid, under no circumstances
can their new union be considered lawful, and therefore reception of the sacraments
is intrinsically impossible. The conscience of the individual is bound to this norm
without exception” (Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “The Pastoral approach to marriage
must be founded on truth” L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, 7 December 2011,
p. 4)
The teaching on epikeia, too – according to which a law may be generally
valid, but does not always apply to concrete human situations – may not be invoked
here, because in the case of the indissolubility of sacramental marriage we are dealing
with a divine norm that is not at the disposal of the Church. Nevertheless – as we
see from the privilegium Paulinum – the Church does have the authority to clarify
the conditions that must be fulfilled for an indissoluble marriage, as taught by Jesus,
to come about. On this basis, the Church has established impediments to marriage,
she has recognized grounds for annulment, and she has developed a detailed process
for examining these.
A further case for the admission of remarried divorcees
to the sacraments is argued in terms of mercy. Given that Jesus himself showed solidarity
with the suffering and poured out his merciful love upon them, mercy is said to be
a distinctive quality of true discipleship. This is correct, but it misses the mark
when adopted as an argument in the field of sacramental theology. The entire sacramental
economy is a work of divine mercy and it cannot simply be swept aside by an appeal
to the same. An objectively false appeal to mercy also runs the risk of trivializing
the image of God, by implying that God cannot do other than forgive. The mystery of
God includes not only his mercy but also his holiness and his justice. If one were
to suppress these characteristics of God and refuse to take sin seriously, ultimately
it would not even be possible to bring God’s mercy to man. Jesus encountered the adulteress
with great compassion, but he said to her “Go and do not sin again” (Jn 8:11). God’s
mercy does not dispense us from following his commandments or the rules of the Church.
Rather it supplies us with the grace and strength needed to fulfil them, to pick ourselves
up after a fall, and to live life in its fullness according to the image of our heavenly
Father.
Pastoral care
Even if there is no possibility of admitting
remarried divorcees to the sacraments, in view of their intrinsic nature, it is all
the more imperative to show pastoral concern for these members of the faithful, so
as to point them clearly towards what the theology of revelation and the Magisterium
have to say. The path indicated by the Church is not easy for those concerned. Yet
they should know and sense that the Church as a community of salvation accompanies
them on their journey. Insofar as the parties make an effort to understand the Church’s
practice and to abstain from communion, they provide their own testimony to the indissolubility
of marriage.
Clearly, the care of remarried divorcees must not be reduced to
the question of receiving the Eucharist. It involves a much more wide-ranging pastoral
approach, which seeks to do justice to to the different situations. It is important
to realize that there are other ways, apart from sacramental communion, of being in
fellowship with God. One can draw close to God by turning to him in faith, hope and
charity, in repentance and prayer. God can grant his closeness and his salvation to
people on different paths, even if they find themselves in a contradictory life situation.
As recent documents of the Magisterium have emphasized, pastors and Christian communities
are called to welcome people in irregular situations openly and sincerely, to stand
by them sympathetically and helpfully, and to make them aware of the love of the Good
Shepherd. If pastoral care is rooted in truth and love, it will discover the right
paths and approaches in constantly new ways.