THE
P RTAL
February 2018
Page 24
Air-borne
matrimony
Geoffrey Kirk has some questions
C lever publicity
stunt or pastoral act of mercy? Reactions to the
Holy Father’s foray into air-borne matrimony have been startlingly varied. I
am not sure that either extreme quite captures the significance of the event.
The first question to be asked –
and, with all due respect to all three
parties involved, the hardest to
answer- is who is telling the truth
about it. The couple in question were
quite clear that it was the Pope who
suggested the ceremony. The Holy
Father later claimed, in interview,
that he was approached by the couple
themselves; that due investigation
was made as to their bona fides; and
that they had undergone a form
of preparation. Who can say? The
event itself was so strange that both possibilities seem
plausible.
But we can, I think, gain some insight into the Holy
Father’s thinking and motivation from another source
– the text of his message for the World Day of Social
Communications (January 24). There he makes the
following statement: “An impeccable argument can rest
on undeniable facts, but if it is used to hurt another and
to discredit that person in the eyes of others, however
correct it may appear, it is not truthful”,
This flexible attitude to truth is itself very flexible.
One can see how it could extend, for example, to
canonical rules and requirements. Though good and
true in themselves, (and remaining so in the majority
of cases) these rules and requirements are rendered less
good and true in other circumstances where pastoral
sensitivities require otherwise.
So the Church’s prime legislator can tell a woman
(over the telephone, as it appears) that if her parish
priest refuses her Holy Communion she should simply
take herself off to another church. So the Successor of
Peter can say: ‘Who am I to judge?’
This is why Francis rails so often against the rigid and
intransigent. Priests diligently following the rules are,
on this reading, simply being pastorally obstructive.
They put souls at risk.
But who is to be the arbiter of this
sentimentalist view of truth and
rectitude? And how are we to ensure
that its operation is fair and just to
all? How can sacraments operate
as assurances of grace unless all are
agreed what they are and what they
require of us? But these, apparently,
are not problems for the occupant of
the Holy See.
For the simple parish priest,
however, they are real and tangible.
He cannot jet off to a far country leaving the
consequences to others.