Sadly, the next day, the Pope’s statement was edited. I think the edit actually made it worse. What Pope Francis said is what he said. He was in front of a pack of prelates when he said it, too. Although it wasn’t a prepared statement, he had something on his mind when he said this. Canon lawyers got involved and began to explain how what he meant causes problems.
It seems everyone was worried about how what Pope Francis said affected them. It seems they were concerned about the facade of society. They realized that if what Pope Francis said is true, then we’ve been living and going along with a lie.
I think that is hard for many people to realize that a problem is bigger than they see it. Think about times that you’ve discovered that you were fooled by someone. You want to avoid admitting that you had been fooled. Psychologists have that grieving process they talk about, and the first step is denial. Then the next step is anger. Comments attempting to explain away the statement were chock full of denial and anger.
I wonder if that is what these commenters on the Pope’s Statement had: denial and anger. Is this some sort of collective grieving process led by a Pope that called it like he saw it: the vast majority of marriages, said Pope Francis, are null. BAM. Immediately, the Catholic commentary began to flow and said that Pope Francis should keep his mouth shut, that he shouldn’t speak off the cuff, and on and on. But did these reactions actually consider whether the observation might be true? After all, this isn’t an American tribunal making the statement. I think I’m not sure what the Pope meant beyond a brief mention of everything being “provisional” to people these days. He gave the example of people having children and essentially living together but holding marriage off for later.
Another Turf War?
As I read the reactions to his statement, I did not hear proof of the opposite claim. Rather, I heard people reacting with protection of what this means to their turf. Some canon lawyers immediately took the Pope’s statement as a stand in a fight they’ve been having among themselves. For some time now, the hottest issue among canonists is whether the “lack of faith” argument is valid grounds and several other nuances that only lawyers enjoy arguing. To many of them, they imported the Pope’s statement as a fact to be rendered helpful or harmful to that fight. To some bloggers, it was just a chance to go off on Pope Francis as a source of confusion. Catholic blogger reactions appeared to be driven by a more visceral reaction to Pope Francis than as to whether the comment might be right. One went so far as to say they would pray to God the His will be done with the papacy (ahem… we’re already obliged to do that. and this was a prominent conservative type blog, so …).
One Catholic blogger, apparently ignorant of the notion of natural marriage, or that marriage was “from the beginning”, even took umbrage with the Pope’s statement that many cohabitations were valid marriages. I thought that spoke for itself — takes two to tango — even Adam and Eve, or the survivors of the flood, understood that. Yes, matrimony is a sacrament that is a marriage witnessed by the Church, and to which sacramental grace is imbued. But marriage itself is a natural institution, as Our Lord said. So there was no scandal in the Pope’s comment there — even though some kicked sand over it. But that wasn’t even all of it!
Some others tried to build an argument that Pope Francis was being Cardinal Kaspar’s mouthpiece. I don’t know about all that. I just know that what Pope Francis may well be right, maybe for different reasons than what Pope Francis meant, and I’ll tell you why below.
Finally, in a move that should have made many laugh, Fox News posted that he should resign. I found the “logic” of that rant to be entertainingly superficial. For instance, the conclusory opinion asserted as fact by the author there:
To say that the “great majority” of Catholic marriages are null, or invalid, is a statement that is neither true, wise, nor fair.
I read a list there, and I wanted some proof from this news site that they could prove as true that the great majority were valid. They can’t. I also found it humorous that a news media outlet is going to lecture the Pope on wisdom. Finally, I think the mention of “fair” was a gratuitous tip of the hat to use the language Fox news people like to hear. I notice that this word is sprinkled onto their site like poppy seeds on my favorite lemon pound cake.
To the Fox News commenter, the worst implication of Pope’s statement is this:
Francis’ statement demonstrates a lack of faith in the Church and its ability to vet couples seeking marriage, to teach them about what marriage is, and to administer the sacraments effectively. If most marriages are invalid because couples don’t understand a life-long commitment, does that mean most priestly ordinations are invalid too? If so, are most masses invalid? Most confessions?
Readers of this site should know and not be surprised that the claims of priests to be released from ordination skyrocketed in the late 70’s and continue to today. Many claim that they did not understand it would be for life. Chronicling the numerous reports of people that a priest used an invalid formulation of absolution would take the rest of the internet to list. Let’s not even discuss reports of penance services where people were instructed by a butch looking ex-nun type to write their sins on a piece of paper which would then be burnt in a giant bowl.
I’ve written numerous times for a long time of the decay and corruption of AmChurch. That it still persists in such simple issues as Communion in the Hand is rather instructive. But, we don’t need to be academic about this.
For this poor Fox News guy, it is apparently news to him that the pews are empty, the confessionals are empty, and the majority of Catholics in this country do not believe the basic tenets of the faith. Yes, I do believe they can put on a show long enough for the half-interested to let them get married. After all, it’s their big day.
Is it “True”?
Let’s focus on that word truth for a moment. Take your experience around general society these days. Do the majority of people you meet tell you the truth? Or, do they say what is “nice”? …what is “polite”? Are they politically correct? Fr. Hardon defined speaking the truth as “speaking what is on one’s mind.” Our society has trained people to say what they think other people want to hear. So we’ve trained a nation of liars. A nation of people that speak with someone else’s mind.
Add on top of this, the observations of Fr. Hardon in the 90’s that people increasingly are educated to worship themselves (not God) and are increasingly incapable of reason. It’s far advanced and worse, however. Pope Benedict, as Cardinal Ratzinger, gave the Regensberg address in which he said that the world was intentionally being dehellenized. Reason and basic things taken for granted by generations past are being destroyed. People today think they can make reality with their minds. They think they are gods. Worse, they say whatever they need to say to get whatever they want right now.
Yes… we can argue over whether it is 40%, 60%, or 90%. But these people are incapable of telling the truth to make a commitment to another person for the rest of their life. And even if they utter the correct words, they’ve accustomed themselves to lying so well that they don’t mean it. It’s a capacity problem.
Yes, Pope Francis may well have been right. Liars can’t make vows, and people who worship themselves can’t turn to God for a sacrament. It doesn’t matter how much teaching and catechism you give them because having deformed their minds, they cannot be reconverted by reason… we need miracles. Miracles of conversion! (oh wait, Fr. Hardon said that, too).
This article, Despite all the Angst, Maybe Pope Francis is Right… And the reactions were wrong for the wrong reasons is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/despite-angst-maybe-pope-francis-right/
Do not repost the entire article without written permission. Reasonable excerpts may be reposted so long as it is linked to this page.