According to Miguel Angel Ortiz, a professor at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, Benedict wasn’t so much addressing the specific issue of remarried divorcees but addressing the relation between the spouses’ personal faith and the validity of marriage, including its commitment to fidelity.

In a 2005 question-and-answer session with priests, the pope said he once believed that lack of faith was enough to declare a marriage invalid. But, after tasking theologians to look into the issue, he had “understood that the problem was very difficult” and required further study.

At the time, Benedict said it was “particularly sad” to see people marry in the church out of tradition instead of a faith commitment only to subsequently find faith and remarry.

For Ortiz, the pope’s reflection could “speed up the process of declaring a marriage invalid” without changing the substance of the process itself.

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Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Marriage & Family • Religion & Culture • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic • Pope Benedict XVI • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology • Pastoral Theology

1. Teatime2 wrote: So he’s just given them another reason for their annulments? Lol January 31, 3:19 am | [comment link]

2. NewTrollObserver wrote: I find your lack of faith disturbing. January 31, 8:32 am | [comment link]

3. Teatime2 wrote: #2—I’m disturbed that you apparently equate faith in manmade institutions as a faith in God. Oh, I have plenty of faith in God—and none in the bureaucracies that have sprung up in His Name. Hmmm, interesting quandary for the RCs, though. I wonder f they’ll have to prove which “faith” was impaired—God, their church or both since they believe that Jesus desired them to set up their bureaucracy. January 31, 1:40 pm | [comment link]

4. Charles52 wrote: This article doesn’t make sense: does the pope think a lack of faith is an impediment? Or did he think that in the past and doesn’t think it anymore? Is it all up in the air? The intentions necessary for a valid marriage are simple: permanence, fidelity, and openness to children.  It doesn’t take a religious faith to intend those three things.  The goods of marriage are natural goods, pertaining to the natural law, not to a specific religion. So I don’t have a clue what this article is about. January 31, 7:56 pm | [comment link]

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