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Dec 29th, 2019
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 610
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For long-term marriages that fail, there is no question but that a real marriage existed at some time Why? I agree that the further removed a thing is, the more difficult it is to demonstrate, and that they're giving away annulments like candy and for the slightest excuse, but if the failure is proof of nothing, neither is the apparent success proof of anything. A bigamist might conceal a double life for years. A philanderer might withhold any intention of exclusivity and conceal this for years with success. I don't see how you can jump to "there is no question" and I don't see any logic in that.
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 7,309 Likes: 2
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Bigamy is an impediment; if one is already married, or even espoused, then one is not free to contract a new marriage. But, as someone said, the good tree bears good fruit: a marriage which was happy for many years, and which has produced children, provides evidence of good fruit, indicating that the tree was sound at one point, even if rotten today.
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 610
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Joined: Jan 2011
Posts: 610 |
Bigamy is an impediment; if one is already married, or even espoused, then one is not free to contract a new marriage. But, as someone said, the good tree bears good fruit: a marriage which was happy for many years, and which has produced children, provides evidence of good fruit, indicating that the tree was sound at one point, even if rotten today. Maybe I'm missing something, but I find this whole paragraph shockingly irrational. Happiness as evidence of sacramental validity? Really? You might as well ascribe holy orders to Evangelical Protestants.
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Joined: Nov 2001
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We're not talking validity, we talking efficacy. The East has never put as much emphasis on mere legal validity as the West does. We're more interested in whether the sacrament worked; i.e., did it effect the spiritual transformation for which it was intended. In this case, did the two flesh become one? Did the marriage bear fruit? Was the fruit good?
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