Divorce and Second Marriages. The compliant “Oikonomia” of the Orthodox Churches
Compliant toward the bullying of the civil tribunals, from the times of
the Byzantine empire. The past and present of the matrimonial practice
of the Orthodox according to the reconstruction of an authority in the
field, Archbishop Cyril Vasil(Jesuit), secretary of the congregation for the
Oriental Churches
by Sandro Magister
ROME, September 26, 2014 – The example of the Orthodox Churches that
allow second marriages is an argument enlisted by those who want the
Catholic Church to set aside the ban on communion for the divorced and
remarried, with Cardinal Walter Kasper in the lead.
Pope Francis
gave them a big nudge with the sibylline “parenthesis” that he opened
and closed in a conversation with journalists on the return flight from
Rio de Janeiro on July 28, 2013:
“But also – a parenthesis – the
Orthodox have a different practice. They follow the theology of what
they call oikonomia, and they give a second chance, they allow it. But I
believe that this problem – and here I close the parenthesis – must be
studied within the context of the pastoral care of marriage.”
The
commonly held idea is that second and even third marriages are
celebrated sacramentally in the Orthodox Churches, and communion is
given to the divorced and remarried. And this in continuity with the
“merciful” practice of the Church in the early centuries.
But the
reality is very far from these fantasies. Second marriages entered into
the practice of the Eastern Churches in a later era, toward the end of
the first millennium. They entered under the invasive influence of civil
legislation, of which the Church was the executrix.
In any case,
second and third marriages were never considered a sacrament. They were
allowed under various more or less expansive forms in this or that area
of Orthodoxy. The dissolution of first marriages was almost always for
these Churches the simple transcription of a sentence of divorce issued
by the civil authority.
The Orthodox Churches themselves do not
help to specify this practice of theirs in a theologically and
juridically clear form. The proof of this is the serious difficulty in
which pastors in the Catholic Church find themselves in coming to grips
with mixed marriages in which the Orthodox party comes from a marriage
that has been dissolved on both the civil and religious level.
This
knowledge gap is filled in, in the text reproduced further below, by an
authority in this field, Archbishop Cyril Vasil (in the photo), a
49-year-old Slovak Jesuit, secretary of the Vatican congregation for the
Oriental Churches and a former dean of the faculty of canon law at the
Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome.
The text is an extract
from the extensive and well-documented article that Vasil dedicated to
the theme in this multi-author book to be released in early October in
the United States and Italy:
"Remaining in the Truth of Christ. Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church", Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2014.
"Permanere nella verità di Cristo. Matrimonio e Comunione nella Chiesa cattolica", Cantagalli, Sienne, 2014.
The
book, conceived of as a contribution to the upcoming synod on the
family, has ignited lively reactions on account of the presence among
its authors of cardinals Gerhard L. Müller, prefect of the congregation
for the doctrine of the faith, Walter Brandmüller, Raymond L. Burke,
Velasio De Paolis, and Carlo Caffarra, all of them severely critical of
the ideas of their colleague Kasper. Who has counterattacked by
asserting that Francis had “agreed” with him on his proposals and
therefore “the target of the polemics is not me, but the pope.”
But
while the five cardinals had already presented their positions in
previous statements - presented again in the book with their explicit
cooperation, unlike the inventions that the media chimes in with
Kasper’s remonstrations - Vasil’s article on divorce and second
marriages in the Eastern Churches is an absolute novelty, on a matter
among the least known and most misunderstood, and yet of extraordinary
significance and relevance.
|
Archbishop Cyril Vasil (Jesuit) |
In early October, in addition to “Remaining in the Truth of Christ,”
from which the chapter by Archbishop Cyril Vasil is taken, Ignatius
Press will publish this other book on the themes of the synod, also
critical of Kasper’s proposals in favor of communion for the divorced
and remarried:
Stephan
Kampowski, Juan Perez-Soba, "The Gospel of the Family. Going Beyond
Cardinal Kasper's Proposals in the Debate on Marriage, Civil Re-Marriage
and Communion in the Church", Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2014.
The
book opens with a combative preface by Cardinal George Pell, prefect of
the Vatican secretariat for the economy, and will also be published in
Italy by Cantagalli.
Both titles are already available as e-books on the website of Ignatius Press:
> Ignatius Press - eBooks
The founder and director of Ignatius Press is the Jesuit Joseph D.
Fessio, a member of the Schülerkreis, the group of former theology
students of Joseph Ratzinger.
Also on the theme of this article, www.chiesa published a commentary
last May 30 by the theologian and liturgist Nicola Bux, a consultant for
the congregation for divine worship:
> The Myth and Reality of Second Marriages among the Orthodox
The working documents of the next session of the synod of bishops:
> Documento preparatorio
> Instrumentum Laboris
The names of the synod fathers, collaborators, observers, and “fraternal delegates” who will take part in the synod:
> Elenco dei partecipanti
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