The implications of Pope Francis' latest rules on annulment
Since our freshman years in the study of Law, we have always been told by our professors that marriage is an inviolable social institution, which society cherishes and protects. It is a contract, yes, and the consent of the contracting parties is essential. And all the essential requirements for a valid marriage must be complied with. It is a contract whereby the putative spouses declare publicly that they are taking each other as lawful spouses before God and before the State. Then a marriage contract is signed in front of many witnesses, and before the community, family and friends. But it is much, much more than an ordinary contract. Marriage has many far-reaching impact and implications. It is a milestone in the life of every married person.
Since childhood also, we have always been instructed that the sacrament of matrimony was founded by the Lord, Jesus Christ Himself in the wedding of Cana. And Christ made many strong (if unequivocal, explicit and uncompromising ) pronouncements on marriage, one of which always strikes me with deep reflections and deeper contemplations, that whoever God has joined together, no one should put asunder, and that a woman shall leave her father and mother and shall join her husband. And that the husband and the wife shall cease to be separate but shall become one flesh. With the latest pronouncement by Pope Francis making it easy to declare the nullity of marriage, we are quite shocked and are now asking why.
When I married my wife on December 23, 1978, here in Cebu's sacred Heart Church, there were three priests who concelebrated the Eucharist and witnessed our marriage. Then the sermon given by my first-degree cousin, now Monsignor Rolando A. Jimenez, currently parish priest of the great Parish of Barili, was on wives being required to submit themselves to their husbands, and husbands being directed to love their wives, as Christ loves his Church. Wives are called upon to recognize the leadership of the husband as the Church being told to recognize the leadership of Christ. The failure of marriages today, to my mind, is largely due to wives not submitting themselves to their husbands, and husbands having refused or failed to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.
Now, for the Church to make it easy to annul marriages, instead of instituting measures and adopting mechanisms to strengthen the sacrament of matrimony, has caused a lot of concerns among the faithful, and has even ignited some criticisms allegedly from the inner sanctum sancturom in Rome's curia itself. Let us remember that Pope Francis is seen as an ''outsider'' by the old guards, mostly Italian cardinals who consider themselves as the strong pillars of the Church who must protect and uphold the dogma and the sacred teaching of the Roman Catholic and apostolic church. He is from South America, and albeit his ancestry is from Italy, the politics inside does consider him ''as one of the boys''.
Pope Francis made this very bold move, without waiting for the synod to be convened has raised tremendous worries and even pains among the conservatives in the Church. He went ahead with such a draconian measure, despite the fact that the main agendum of such a gathering of bishops from all over the world is precisely to take a long, hard and joint reexamination of the sacrament of matrimony and the institution of family, in the context of a very different world today. What could have led Pope Francis to do it could only lead to speculations and surmise. Many Catholics are confused, and upset.
As a lay minister and as an active member of the Marriage Encounter Community of Magis Deo, in Ateneo, and soon to be installed Knight of Columbus, I am now in a quandary. And I seek some clarification as to the compelling necessity to rush such a move at the time when the sacrament of marriage is being attacked from all directions by the greed, the infidelities and the lack of faith of today's secular world. Pope Francis perhaps made it even more difficult for us ordinary mortals to understand when he also announced that he would soon promulgate anew set of rules that will make it easy to lift the ex-communication of women who knowingly aborted their children. If this is a crisis of faith, then I need the help of the Holy Spirit to show me the rhyme and reason behind these all. In the meanwhile, I entrust everything to Him.
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