Pope: Not Everyone Has Right To Marry In Catholic Church

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI told priests Saturday to do a better job counseling would-be spouses to ensure their marriages last and said no one has an absolute right to a wedding.

Benedict made the comments in his annual speech to the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments. An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.

Benedict acknowledged that the problems that would allow for a marriage to be annulled cannot always be identified beforehand. But he said better pre-marriage counseling, which the Catholic Church requires of the faithful, could help avoid a "vicious circle" of invalid marriages.

He said the right to a church wedding requires that the bride and groom intend to celebrate and live the marriage truthfully and authentically.

"No one can make a claim to the right to a nuptial ceremony," he said.

Benedict has used his annual speech to the Rota to impress on its members the indissolubility of marriage and that they should avoid the temptation of granting annulments on a whim. Last year, he urged the tribunal to work harder to encourage couples to stay together and not confuse "pastoral charity" with the need to uphold church law.

On Saturday, Benedict said priests had an important pastoral job to discern whether would-be spouses are prepared and able to enter into a valid marriage.

"The church and society at large place too much importance on the good of marriage and the family founded on it to not make a profound commitment to it pastorally," Benedict said.

The Vatican's concern about marriage annulments is largely directed at the United States, which in 2006 had more annulment cases launched than the rest of the world combined.

Comments

[remnant0888]

02:28 PM on 02/06/2011

>>>>"Benedict acknowledged that the problems that would allow for a marriage to be annulled cannot always be identified beforehand. But he said better pre-marriage counseling, which the Catholic Church requires of the faithful, could help avoid a "vicious circle" of invalid marriages.

He said the right to a church wedding requires that the bride and groom intend to celebrate and live the marriage truthfully and authentically."

[llstudent]

04:27 PM on 01/28/2011

Oh yeah, my ex brother in law got his marriage annulled after 25 years and 4 children because he gave a lot of money to the church, go figure. So hypocritical.

[Seaniebhoy]

11:30 AM on 01/28/2011

Did anyone read the article????? The Pope was only talking to Priests...it's the equivalent of a meeting at work...he wasn't making a public proclomation or denouncing Gay Marriage...he simply said that the Parishes should not rubber stamp every potential marriage that walks through the front door, unless they prove themselves to love each other...
Now if I were to be looking for something to critisize it would be the feeling that the church does not want to intermarry couples where one is a different faith on the chance that the children will not be raised Catholic...

[remnant0888]

02:22 PM on 02/06/2011

Sorry it is you who did not read the article. ...
he was talking about counseling couples,[unless priests COME AS couples now?? LOL,]
to NOT marry hastily, so as to lower the Annulment rate IN THE ROMAN CHURCH.
Which to me is stupid because only the RICH get annulments..
The poor get divorces and then are "banned" from receiving what your church teaches is "Salvation/ The Bread and Wine" ..
But Canon law also states that only people who intend to " have children", are deemed worthy to marry.
Of course that is so they can increase the flock of brainwashed humans who believe God would break HIS own laws with this religion. GOD says NO to IDOL worship ...
BTW Catholic's worship everything from statues, saints, mary, to the "bread and wine" ...and continually try to "sacrifice the Son of God afresh" every hour of every day.
Which is blasphemy. So I would say the pope has more to worry about when he dies then most of the divorced Catholics.
"IF YOU CAUSE ONE OF MY LITTLE ONES TO STUMBLE ON THEIR WAY TO ME, IT IS BETTER IF YOU WERE NEVER BORN" :/

[DevonTexas]

01:46 PM on 01/26/2011

marriage is what happens when dating gets boring.

[considerthis]

12:55 PM on 01/28/2011

..and continues when you're both too lazy to move

[Douglas Campbell]

11:30 AM on 01/26/2011

Marriage is a fine institution, I am just not ready to be institutionalized...however, I should determine the course of my life, not the pope, not Maggie Gallagher, not Bryan Brown.

[edensaunt]

10:41 AM on 01/26/2011

yes, of course this is true. perhaps some Catholics are in denial as to what their religion actually involves? Would that the Church would stay out of non-Catholic, non-sacramental marriage and realize that their sacrament has little to do with the rest of us.

[Seaniebhoy]

11:23 AM on 01/28/2011

The Opoe was talking to Priests, not lay people or non-catholics so I'm not sure what everone is up in arms about?

[llstudent]

04:28 PM on 01/28/2011

It is all about power, period.

[Lexi Suarez]

12:50 AM on 01/26/2011

Seriously, soon the church isn't going to want anyone to get married. I hope to live to see the day this mega-business comes crashing down.

[LivToSki]

07:44 AM on 01/25/2011

Not to worry; it would be the last place I'd turn to.

[helioszephyr]

08:19 PM on 01/25/2011

I hear ya!

[Seaniebhoy]

05:01 PM on 01/24/2011

I think most of you are missing the point by miles!! Getting married in the RC church is an exhaustive process where you have to answer many questions about your future, your past and your present. If the Priest believes it is a sham marraiage he can refuse to marry you. Furthermore, getting an annullment is next to impossible, and if you get divorced without an annulment, you can not re-marry in a church...so the church wants to let its members know that if they want to be married in a church, do so if you want to because to get out of it is far more difficult tan you think.

[GoingApricot]

05:43 PM on 01/24/2011

You can get an annulment for a few dollars.

It's called an "indulgence."

[Seaniebhoy]

08:13 AM on 01/25/2011

Nope.

[horseguards]

03:23 PM on 01/24/2011

Some Protestant commentators equate the Pope's title, Vicarius Filii Dei (Vicar of the Son of God) with the Mark of the Beast (666).
This is achieved by assigning each letter of the title to its corresponding Roman numerical value. Note a, e, f, r, s are not Roman numerals, hence all equal "0". “U” is regarded “V”.

V=5
I=1
C=100
A=0
R=0
I=1
V=5
S=0
F=0
I=1
L=50
I=1
I=1
D=500
E=0
I=1
total = 666.

[cmalloy]

12:03 AM on 01/26/2011

lol

[MirrorMonkey]

10:50 AM on 01/26/2011

Actually, this is a fable invented by the Seventh Day Adventists. It is a fable because no pope has ever used the title "Vicar of the Son of God"; the title used is actually "Vicar of Christ" (Vicarius Christi). "Vicar" is a term from late Roman civil administration; the vicarius was the person in charge of what was called a "diocese" made up of several provinces, and it was the duty of the vicarius to enusre that the governors of the provinces in that diocese remained loyal to the emperor and exercised their duties properly. Calling the pope "vicar of Christ" means that the pope ensures that the bishops remain faithful to Christ the King.

Obviously, when one uses this phony type of Adventist numerology, the letters in the correct title of "Vicarius Christi" do not add up to 666.

On the other hand, the "prophetess" who founded this sect was a woman named Ellen Gould White. Let's see - Ellen has LL, so that's 50+50, or 100; Gould has V (for "u"), L and D, so that's 5+50+500. So far we are up to 655. And what of "White"? Well, we have V and V (that is, a double "u"), and I, so that's another 5+5+1. Thus, while the correct title of the Pope doesn't add up to 666, the name of the foundress of the SDA church, using their own system of numerology, adds up neatly to exactly -- 666!

[dancingstu]

02:50 PM on 01/24/2011

So many people here are condemning this message.  What part of "better pre-marriage counseling" is a bad thing?  Too many people focus on the wedding and think very little about the marriage to follow.  I'm not a Catholic by any stretch of the imagination, but even I can agree with the Pope on this one.

[horseguards]

03:25 PM on 01/24/2011

The Pope no longer has any credibility (or less than previous).

[dancingstu]

04:06 PM on 01/24/2011

You may think he has no credibility, but you have to accept that he has a major influence over the lives of millions of Catholics.  When he actually is promoting a good thing, we should be glad for that.  Don't worry, he'll condemn birth control or treat women as second-class citizens tomorrow.  For today, can't we just agree with him that premarital counseling is a good thing?

[Seaniebhoy]

04:51 PM on 01/24/2011

That isn't really answering the question.

[helioszephyr]

08:14 PM on 01/25/2011

" What part of "better pre-marria ge counseling " is a bad thing?"

The part that he, and his crew, have no credible "life" experience in marriage or personal relations with a woman, or sexual interaction with... errr, scrap that part!

[MirrorMonkey]

10:54 AM on 01/26/2011

Yeah, it's not like priests actually had parents, or siblings, or friends, right?

By the way, while we are at it, would you also say that doctors who have not experienced an condition have no credibility when it comes to how that condition should be treated? Do you think that women have no credible life experience being men, and vice versa, so no one should ever listen to anyone of the opposite sex?

For that matter, you have never had any credible life experience being someone else -- so following your own "logic", why should anyone listen to advice from you?

[dancingstu]

01:21 PM on 01/26/2011

There are plenty of therapists, psychiatrists, and psychologists who aren't bi-polar, depressed, schizophrenic, obsessive-compulsive too.  Does that disqualify them from counseling people that experience those conditions?  I don't think so.
 
Pre-marital counseling by a priest is no different than a therapy session.  It gets the participants thinking about their own actions.

[alterego55]

02:39 PM on 01/24/2011

"An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place."

It is also the process by which the church plays Where's Waldo with pedophile priests, and the hierarchy obfuscates evidence so that the molestation never took place.

[horseguards]

01:49 PM on 01/24/2011

There is only one thing worse than Catholic Church pronouncements, and that is they who accept them.

[wallingtonlives]

01:19 PM on 01/24/2011

Yes, this man has such poor judgement that he still think his words mean something to intelligent people......

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/popersquos-child-porn-normal-claim-sparks-outrage-among-victims-15035449.html

[MirrorMonkey]

11:00 AM on 01/26/2011

I'm not sure why you linked that article as if you thought it supported your case, or why these people claim to be "outraged". "Outraged" by what? What the Pope said is 100% accurate, and absolutely correct: during the 1970s this idea was indeed theorized by many secular "intellectuals", especially in France.

Why would anyone be outraged about a perfectly accurate statement describing what famous "intellectuals" said at the time? Or are they just ignorant of the fact that many famous "intellectuals" (Sartre, among others) advanced this exact claim publicly-- a claim, by the way, that the Pope said was wrong?

[Euterpe360]

01:18 PM on 01/24/2011

What? People should actually think about marriage before getting married and later divorcing? SACRILEGE!!!!

(pun intended)