THE P RTAL
November 2014
Page 24
Rigorist, or Generous?
There seem to be two responses
to marriage after divorce, one rigorist,
the other more generous
Geoffrey Kirk turns to Anglican Patrimony
to shed some light on the question
Coming as
we do from a Church which until recently had the strictest discipline on divorce and
remarriage in the whole of Christendom (and now has a free-for-all indistinguishable from the mores
of the ambient culture), we Ordinariate Catholics have some Patrimony to bring to the Catholic Church’s
current debate on marriage and the family. Perhaps we should begin with a simple and incontrovertible
observation.
an authentic word of Jesus
The saying of Jesus about divorce is the best attested
of all His sayings in the gospels: that is to say it appears
four times in the synoptics and once in Paul, Two
forms of the saying appear in the gospels – a long from
(Mk 10:2-12 and Mtt 19:3-9) and a short form (Mtt:
5:31ff and Lk 16:18).
Paul is closer to the short form. The long and the
short forms are so substantially different that most
commentators have supposed that independent
traditions co- existed, so enhancing the likelihood that
the saying is an authentic word of Jesus
Two attitudes to the saying seem to have been current
among the earliest Christian communities: one rigorist,
the other more generous. Which are we to prefer? The
(very considerable) weight of probability lies with
the more rigorous. In day to day pastoral encounters
(then, as now) there is a tendency to mitigate apparent
severity to suit present predicaments.
Paul’s attitude to those married to un