OK, what IS exactly the Eastern Catholic position on divorce/remarriage, economia, etc?
What it says on the title. I've heard conflicting assertions from people.
Posted Oct 14, 2016, 6:46 PM UTC
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I've read similar things, though they seem more often than not written by people with an obvious ax to grind.
But, let's go to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (1990), and see what we can find.
Canon 776 - §1. The matrimonial covenant, established by the Creator and ordered by His laws, by which a man and woman by an irrevocable personal consent establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the generation and education of the offspring. [...] §3. The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in a marriage between baptized persons obtain a special firmness in virtue of the sacrament.
Canon 852 - The sacramental bond of marriage for a consummated marriage cannot be dissolved by any human power nor by any cause other than death.
(Emphasis added.)
Of course there is initial invalidity, Pauline Privilege, etc. to consider (which is not different from the West). Nor did I sit down and read everything in the Code related to marriage. But I think those two canons present a good prima facie case that the Eastern Churches consider a valid marriage indissoluble.
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I think the problem is that I see one thing, then another source calls it "rotten Kasperite propaganda" and the ither interlocutor calls the second source "ignorant of the history of ecumenical councils".
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Well, when I say "written by people with an ax to grind" I mean that the times I've read the claim that the Eastern Catholic churches allow for divorce (not declarations of nullity, but per se divorce), the claim is being put forward by people who seem interested in asserting that it's incoherent for the Western Church to not allow for divorce when they (allegedly) allow it in the East. Which, if true, would be a troublesome situation of two distinct and incompatible theologies existing under the same roof. Which is, obviously, exactly what said people are aiming to show.
No one is arguing that the Eastern Orthodox don't allow for divorce. Some are arguing that the Catholic Church should adopt their theology regarding marriage, in place of the West's more "legalistic" understanding.
I'm not well-versed enough in the assorted proposals, counsels, etc. to be able to discuss them in any depth, nor am I Eastern Catholic. But a cursory reading of the Eastern canons seems to suggest those Churches also regard divorce as an impossibility.
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However, this practice of treating divorce as an impossibility was actually imposed by Rome with the 1917 Code of Canon Law. Until then, the Byzantine Catholics followed the same practice as the Orthodox, not the Roman Catholics. In other words, we should be cautious about using disciplinary documents promulgated by Rome as necessarily representative of Eastern theology.
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Well said. Hopefully they do not ignore what Joseph Raya has to say below. If Latins want to know what Eastern Christians believe , well they need to check out Eastern Christian sources.
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Here is what highly respected Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Joseph Raya of blessed memory has to say about the matter in his book "Crowning: the Christian Marriage", which is used as a manual by the Melkite Church:
Indissolubility
The third part of the crowning ceremony emphasizes the permanent character of faithfulness, the indissolubility of the union of man and wife: "Therefore a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and they two become one flesh (Gen 2:24). And Christ added, "What God has joined together , let no man put asunder" (Matt 19:6). It is only under such a condition that life become both radiant and dynamic.
God�s love is unbroken and inexhaustible: it is indeed faithful from eternity to eternity. In the ceremony of marriage, the Christian love uniting man and wife is intended likewise to last to all eternity. No one in heaven or on earth, and nothing, not even death, can ever dissolve the covenant they have made with each other in complete freedom.
The third prayer of the Sacrament is a magnificent hymn of theology breathing goodness and glory in this indissolubility that God himself is weaving:
O Holy God, you fashioned man from dust And from his rib fashioned woman And joined her to him as a helpmate for him. For it pleased your Majesty That man should not be alone on earth.
O Master, extend your hand From your holy dwelling place, And unite your servant (N.) and your handmade (N.) For by you is a wife joined to her husband.
Join them together in oneness of mind and chastity, And crown them with glory. Wed them into one flesh. Grant them the fruit of the womb And procreation of good children Who will lead blameless lives.
For your is the dominion, And yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, Of the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Now and always, and unto Ages of Ages, Amen.
The main point of the ceremony of crowning is that as Christ is eternally faithful to his Church, so also are man and woman to each other.
Remarriage
The first law of God at the beginning of creation was that the union of man and woman was to be permanent (Gen 2:24). Jesus Christ our Lord, referring to this will of the creator in Genesis, declared that, in the Kingdom of God which he was inaugurating, and which was already present, marriage was to be indissoluble. But in the Old Testament, Moses permitted divorce. The Book of Deuteronomy states: "When a man has taken a wife, and married her, and it came to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because she is in some way unclean; then let him write her a bill of divorce. . . she may go and be another man�s wife" (Deut 24:1-2). Our Lord and God Jesus Christ refused such an easy way to put away a wife. He refused to allow his followers the right to enter into later a relationship of marriage with the woman who had been put away so easily. Our Lord always sought to save the dignity and integrity of the human person: "Whosoever shall marry her who was put away commits adultery. . ." The disciples objected to this saying of the Lord as too hard an ideal: "Lord, if this is the case of the man with his wife, it is not good to marry at all" (Matt 19:10). He answered, "Not anyone can accept what I said, only those to whom it is given" (Matt 19:11). But in order to save the dignity and integrity of the human person, he added: "I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication. . . " (Matt. 5:23).
The Lord addresses the Gospel in its totality to every person in this world, but to each one in an individual way. He calls every person to the absolute of the Gospel, but he does not force it indiscriminately on all humanity. He simply offers his divine ideals as he offered the Beatitudes, as graces of blessedness and sources of security and joy:
Blessed are the poor in sprit, Blessed are the merciful, Blessed are the pure in heart. . . (Matt 5:3ff)
To the young man who asked what to do to gain eternal life, Our Blessed Lord answered by recommending the observance of the Ten Commandments as a good and sufficient practice. But the young man was wishing for more perfection. He asked for something special to elevate him above the ordinary. He was trying for a way of life on the level of the Gospel�s expectations. The Lord then said to him: "If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and follow me" (Mark 10:21-22). The young man went away disappointed: he was not made for such perfection. Jesus, Our Lord, did not condemn him in any way.
Let us also remember the scribe who came with enthusiasm and seemingly great generosity to follow him. But the Lord sent him away with a delicate and respectful refusal: "The foxes have dens, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Matt 8:20).
Following the teaching and example of the Master, the Christian Church upholds the rule of indissolubility of marriage, while admitting exceptions. The high ideals of the Gospel are presented to every human being, but never forced upon them because it would be unjust and an insult to human dignity to impose heroism indiscriminately. A person wronged by the permanent absence of the other would have to become overnight an exceptional soul, or perish.
Perfection is possible only for "those to whom it is given" (Matt 19:11). The Church understands the high ideals of Christ and has always proclaimed and upheld them while realizing that high ideals cannot be imposed equally no everyone and in all circumstances. Following the example of the Master, and in order to protect the honor and dignity of its children against the consequences of sin or of a partner�s death that separate and isolate the remaining spouse, the Church allows the innocent party or the survivor to taken another companion for life. People marry in order to avoid continence and solitude, a state to which few are called. No one has a right to impose the weight of the world upon another�s shoulders: only a giant, an Atlas or a Hercules, could face such a task.
The practice of discernment and compassion is called Oikonomia.
Oikonomia is the prolongation of the divine intention of God "to save what was lost" (Matt 18:11). Our Lord said it and repeated it again and again: "The Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost" (Luke 19:10). To the Lord, humanity is infinitely more precious than any law. He never hesitated to break the law for the sake of restoring sinners to their dignity. He saved the adulteress from the law by which she should have been stoned. He talked to a Samaritan woman and invited himself to her house�while Samaritans were to be shunned and avoided, He broke the law of the Sabbath, declaring, "The Sabbath is at the service of man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). The law of the Temple was clearer yet and stronger about keeping company with sinners: "He who frequents a sinner is worse than a prostitute". But in order to restore sinners to their human dignity, our Lord met with them, ate with them, and felt at ease in their company. This was the Oikonomia of the Lord.
The Holy Orthodox Church of Byzantium has been indulgent to widows and widowers, and to victims of abandonment. It did not allow legalism to take over, nor did it forget the divine Gospel commitment to love and forgive. It considered in all seriousness the words of the Lord, that "the Sabbath was made for man", and that laws existed only to enhance their sacramental reality and vitality, not to be a millstone around their necks.
St. Epiphanios of Cyprus, who lived in the fourth century, says that "he who cannot keep continence after the death of his first wife, or for a valid motive such as fornication, adultery or another misdeed, if he takes a wife, or if the wife (in similar circumstances) takes another husband, the Divine Logos does not condemn them or exclude them from the Church.
The Council of Neocaesarea imposed on the clergy the obligation to divorce an adulterous wife (See on this subject the study in Concillium, Vol.55-1970, p.76f). And Father Nicholas van der Wal adds: This position may have been reached in the early Byzantine Church by taking Matthew 5:53 as part of the Sermon on the Mount. It is indeed possible to see the exhortation of the Sermon as the precepts of an ideal ethic which the Christian striving after perfection must try to live up to (and here the Byzantine Church would first of all think of monks and nuns) while this would not be asked of ordinary people" (p.80) (See also Korbianman Ritzer for details, Concillium, Vol.55-1970, p.67 seq.).
St. Basil has a special dissertation on Oikonomia which was officially approved by the Sixth Ecumenical Council of the Undivided Church of East and West, the Second Council of Constantinople in 680. Canon 25 states: "Spouses abandoned without reason are excused, and this pardon means they will be accepted to communion if they remarry". St. John Chrysostom adds, "It is better to break up a marriage than be damned". Archbishop Elias Zoghby declared at the Second Vatican Council that "even the Church of the West maintained this practice for many hundreds of years with the positive approval of many bishops, popes and synods; and in fact, never attempted to condemn it in the East, even afte4r it had ceased to practice it" (The Melkite Church at Vatican II, p.24).
The single life presupposes a very special vocation and a very special calling, an heroic disposition, and a rare faith. Indissolubility is an ideal, a lofty ideal, a standard of supreme generosity worthy of the human person, but not every person is able to assume it. Faithfulness and the eternal character of the self-revelation made by man and woman to one another are truly precious and unbreakable. The compassion of the Church only permits and reluctantly admits remarriage. The ceremony that blesses such a marriage in the Byzantine Church is so full of sadness and sorrow for human weakness and misery that is a powerful testimony and proclamation of the indissoluble character of Christian "Crowning".
Remarriage after a death or divorce is called simply, "remarriage" , not "crowning", yet it is a binding covenant. It is a partnership of grace and refreshment. There are no crowns, no processions of priesthood, no singing or ringing of bells. There is no incense by which the Church glorifies the divinization of the human person, there is no cup of wine, nor the Body and Blood of the Lord. This is not a priesthood, but a contract made in a ceremony of penance, expressing regret for human frailty and the loss of Christian gifts caused by social conditions.
After ceasing to apply the principle Oikonomia, in its concern and solicitude for its children, the Western Church established the system generally known as annulment. It should rather be called "declaration of nullity". It consists in a declaration that since wone of the partners had entered a prospective marriage without fulfilling one of the basic conditions of indissolubility�full consent, freedom and understanding�the marriage actually had never existed, even after children had been born. Both partners are then free to remarry.
In some instances, this system has been extended by western Marriage Tribunals�rightfully or not, it is not for us to judge�to cases in which marriage were presently and actually dead, even though originally valid.
The Church of Rome uses its power over the sacrament of the priesthood, and releases some of its bishops and priests from the ministry of their priesthood. The bond of priesthood is no less sacred and no less eternal than the bond of matrimony. The Church of Rome allows bishops and priests to give up their life of ministry in the Church and marry, while still recognizing the eternal character of their priesthood. In fact, this same power is used [in the Byzantine Church] over the sacrament of marriage to help and heal a painful state of abandonment and solitude.
There are some unavoidable circumstances in which some people are totally unable to continue living with their original sacramental partner. If in such cases, a union is contracted with a different partner, this in fact honors the Gospel command making the human person more precious than the law of indissolubility. "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27). Absolute enforcement would lead to cruel legalism.