Pope Benedict XVI believes the world’s current crisis of faith in God has caused a crisis for the Christian vision of marriage, even to the extent that lack of faith could affect the validity of a marriage bond.
“Faith in God, sustained by divine grace, is therefore a very important element for living in mutual dedication and conjugal fidelity,” he said.
The Pope was speaking to members of the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal responsible for marriage cases.
He said contemporary culture “poses serious challenges to the person and the family” and calls into question “the very capacity of human beings to bond themselves to another and whether a union that lasts an entire life is truly possible”.
Modern culture, he said, promotes the idea that people can “become themselves while remaining ‘autonomous’ ”, leading to the widespread mentality that relationships “can be interrupted at any time”.
The Pope said he was not suggesting a simple, automatic link between a lack of faith and the invalidity of a marital union.
Rather, he hoped “to draw attention to how such a lack may, although not necessarily, also harm the goods of marriage”, given that a reference to the natural order willed by God “is inherent in the covenant of marriage”.
“The indissoluble covenant between man and woman does not require, for the purpose of sacramentality, the personal faith of those to be married,” he said.
What is required, as the minimum condition, he added, is the intention to “do what the Church does” when it declares a marriage to be a sacrament.
While the question of intent should not be confused with the question of the individuals’ personal faith, “it is not always possible to completely separate them”.
The Pope quoted Blessed John Paul II’s speech to the Roman Rota in 2003, in which he said “an attitude on the part of those getting married that does not take into account the supernatural dimension of marriage can render it null and void only if it undermines its validity on the natural level on which the sacramental sign itself takes place”.
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Image: Catholic Register