Internasjonalt diskuteres det ganske intenst før oktobers bispesynode om ekteskapet, og noen syns å merke at de mest radikale forslagene nå mister støtte. Bl.a. Sandro Magister skriver mye om dette, og nylig dekket han en artikkel i “La Civiltà Cattolica”, der den dominikanske teologen Jean-Miguel Garrigues anbefalte at skilte og gjengifte katolikker skulle få lov til å motta sakramentene. Men Magister gir mest plass til et motsvar til dette forslaget fra en annen dominikaner, og skriver bl.a.:
Of the two exceptions to the ban on communion for the divorced and remarried proposed by “La Civiltà Cattolica,” the more instructive is the first, because it has been for some time the more frequently adopted in pastoral practice.
Fr. Garrigues formulated it as follows:
“I think of a couple in which one of the partners has been previously married, a couple that has children and an active and recognized Christian life. Let’s imagine that the previously married person has submitted the previous marriage to an ecclesiastical tribunal that has decided for the impossibility of pronouncing nullity in the absence of sufficient proof, while they themselves are convinced of the contrary, without having the means to prove it. On the basis of testimony to their good faith, to their Christian life and their sincere attachment to the Church and to the sacrament of marriage, in particular on the part of an expert spiritual father, the diocesan bishop could admit them with discretion to penance and the Eucharist without pronouncing the nullity of the marriage.”
And this is how his theologian confrere replied to him:
“It is like saying that experts in the matter, who dedicate a great deal of time to it, have not been able to find proof of the nullity of the bond, so the bishop, who is not a specialist in the field of marriage, in his soul and conscience could rely after one or two conversations on the good faith of the spouses and the attestation of their spiritual guide.
“One may respond: ‘But their marriage is null.’ In this case, if it really is so, why not marry them? And why act in secret, with confidentiality? Because there are doubts? And if they are not to be married, how will the fact that their first marriage is null change the fact that they are living together without being legitimately married with a sacramental bond? How does this open access to absolution and the Eucharist for them?
“When spouses ultimately apply to the ecclesiastical tribunals (when they do so…) it is because they think that there is some foundation for the nullity of their bond, it is because they are convinced in their soul and conscience that their marriage is null. And if the tribunal does not agree with them, will they be persuaded by this? So all those who apply to the ecclesiastical tribunals will be able to say in conscience that their marriage is null, and the bishop will be able to absolve all of them and authorize all of them to receive communion.
“At that point there would be nothing left to do but to close the tribunals, which would be replaced by the bishops, and even the churches, because a simple civil marriage would produce the effects of a sacramental marriage.”
What is interesting to note is that this same “particular case” now illustrated by “La Civiltà Cattolica” had already been the object of examination by the magisterium of the Church – with an outcome in the negative – in the «Letter on Eucharistic communion for the divorced and remarried faithful» published in 1994 by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith. …
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