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Most marriages today are invalid, Pope Francis suggests
Catholic News Agency ^ | June 16, 2016

Posted on 06/16/2016 7:12:48 PM PDT by ebb tide

Pope Francis said Thursday that the great majority of sacramental marriages today are not valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of permanence and commitment.

“We live in a culture of the provisional,” the Pope said in impromptu remarks June 16. After addressing the Diocese of Rome’s pastoral congress, he held a question-and-answer session.

A layman asked about the “crisis of marriage” and how Catholics can help educate youth in love, help them learn about sacramental marriage, and help them overcome “their resistance, delusions and fears.”

The Pope answered from his own experience.

“I heard a bishop say some months ago that he met a boy that had finished his university studies, and said ‘I want to become a priest, but only for 10 years.’ It’s the culture of the provisional. And this happens everywhere, also in priestly life, in religious life,” he said.

“It’s provisional, and because of this the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null. Because they say “yes, for the rest of my life!” but they don’t know what they are saying. Because they have a different culture. They say it, they have good will, but they don’t know.”

He spoke of his encounter with a woman in Buenos Aires who “reproached” him. She said that priests study for the priesthood for years and can get permission to leave the priesthood to marry and have a family. For the laity, this woman said, “we have to do the sacrament for our entire lives, and indissolubly, to us laity they give four (marriage preparation) conferences, and this is for our entire life.”

Pope Francis said that marriage preparation is a problem, and that marital problems are also linked to social situations surrounding weddings.

He recounted his encounter with a man engaged to be married who was looking for a church that would complement his fiancée’s dress and would not be far from a restaurant.

“It’s social issue, and how do we change this? I don’t know,” the Pope said.

He noted that as Archbishop of Buenos Aires he had prohibited marriages in the case of “shotgun weddings” where the prospective bride was pregnant. He did this on the grounds there was a question of the spouses’ free consent to marry.

“Maybe they love each other, and I’ve seen there are beautiful cases where, after two or three years they got married,” he said. “And I saw them entering the church, father, mother and child in hand. But they knew well (what) they did.”

Pope Francis attributed the marriage crisis to people who “don’t know what the sacrament is” and don’t know “the beauty of the sacrament.”

“They don’t know that it’s indissoluble, they don’t know that it’s for your entire life. It’s hard,” the Pope said.

He added that a majority of couples attending marriage prep courses in Argentina typically cohabitated.

“They prefer to cohabitate, and this is a challenge, a task. Not to ask ‘why don’t you marry?’ No, to accompany, to wait, and to help them to mature, help fidelity to mature.”

He said that in Argentina’s northeast countryside, couples have a child and live together. They have a civil wedding when the child goes to school, and when they become grandparents they “get married religiously.”

“It’s a superstition, because marriage frightens the husband. It’s a superstition we have to overcome,” the Pope said. “I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity, but there are local superstitions, etc.”

“Marriage is the most difficult area of pastoral work,” he said.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic
KEYWORDS: francischurch; heresy; nutcase
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1 posted on 06/16/2016 7:12:48 PM PDT by ebb tide
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The Heretic Bunny; he keeps going and going ...

2 posted on 06/16/2016 7:15:33 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: ebb tide

I don’t know much about marriage. But my wife does. She’s been at it 27 years tomorrow.


3 posted on 06/16/2016 7:18:43 PM PDT by disndat
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To: ebb tide

There seems to be one invalid Pope running around.


4 posted on 06/16/2016 7:19:23 PM PDT by Paladin2 (auto spelchk? BWAhaha2haaa.....)
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To: ebb tide

Pope Ché rides again.


5 posted on 06/16/2016 7:21:00 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (If the Orlando terrorist doesnÂ’t represent all Muslims, why does he represent all gun-owners?)
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To: ebb tide

Think a sacramental marriage is by definition valid and not subject to declaration of nullity.


6 posted on 06/16/2016 7:21:15 PM PDT by amihow (l)
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To: ebb tide

An 80-year old virgin giving advice on marriage. No, thanks.


7 posted on 06/16/2016 7:21:28 PM PDT by sagar
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To: ebb tide

I guess my marriage is invalid. My wife and I have only been married for over 34 years and this September we will have been exclusively together for 38.


8 posted on 06/16/2016 7:21:50 PM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: ebb tide

Well crap. You mean we just wasted the past 30 years puttin’ up with each other? Thanks pope a dope. Oh crap again. We’re not Catholic so do we still fall under this comment? :)


9 posted on 06/16/2016 7:23:16 PM PDT by rktman (Enlisted in the Navy in '67 to protect folks rights to strip my rights. WTH?!)
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To: ebb tide

well, on this he has a point. Till Death Do Us Part doesn’t hold much water anymore.


10 posted on 06/16/2016 7:24:18 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: ebb tide
“I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage ..."

Meanwhile, actual marriages in actual churches do not get this Pope's approval?

11 posted on 06/16/2016 7:24:55 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Nation States seem to be ending. The follow-on should not be Globalism, but Localism.)
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To: disndat

lol! I got married late in life, but it still seems too early!!!

What do annulments cost these days?

Congratulations on your anniversary.


12 posted on 06/16/2016 7:25:17 PM PDT by dp0622 (The only thing an upper crust conservative hates more than a liberal is a middle class conservative)
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To: ebb tide

The rock star pope strikes again. Your ascension to being pope is invalid too buffoon.


13 posted on 06/16/2016 7:26:00 PM PDT by Fungi
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To: ebb tide
“Marriage is the most difficult area of pastoral work,” he (Pope Francis) said.

So let's just equate marriage to the "irregular unions", mentioned numerous time in Amoris Laetitia, and give Holy Communion to everyone.

14 posted on 06/16/2016 7:26:03 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: Blue Jays

President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enjoy a loving, magical, rewarding, and faithful marriage with each other! /s

15 posted on 06/16/2016 7:28:07 PM PDT by Blue Jays
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To: ebb tide
Pope Francis said Thursday that the great majority of sacramental marriages today are not valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of permanence and commitment.

Can't argue that one.

16 posted on 06/16/2016 7:28:35 PM PDT by Don Corleone (Oil the gun, eat the cannolis, take it to the mattress.)
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To: ebb tide
Meds? Or just plain nuts?

I never paid a lot of attention to the Popes over the years. As an outsider I thought they were all basically pretty decent human beings. Well, I'm paying attention to this one. And I didn't think that's a good thing.

At first he just annoyed me, mainly with his whining about govts not spending enough OPM while he sits comfortably on over a trillion dollars. But now it's obviously pathological. He seems to have no inner monologue but just blurts out whatever pops into his head. I hope the RCs can quietly retire him before he does irreversible damage.

17 posted on 06/16/2016 7:30:45 PM PDT by Seruzawa (All those memories will be lost, like tears in rain.)
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To: ebb tide

Sounds like almost everyone qualifies for a no-fault “annulment”


18 posted on 06/16/2016 7:31:01 PM PDT by PAR35
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“They don’t know that it’s indissoluble, they don’t know that it’s for your entire life. It’s hard,” the Pope said.

So a sacramental marriage is just another one of Francis' "ideals" that one may never reach. Francis is just laying more groundwork for his new quick-pass annulment process, aka Catholic divorce.

19 posted on 06/16/2016 7:33:48 PM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: ebb tide

Well, all the faggot ones are, that’s for sure.


20 posted on 06/16/2016 7:34:53 PM PDT by bigbob
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