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The Indissolubility of Marriage as a Theological Problem
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
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From an ecumenical point of view the theological examination of marriage and its indissolubility is one of the most urgent tasks to be undertaken by the Churches of the Reformation. It has been repeatedly stated by them that as long as the Roman Church makes the validity of so-called mixed marriages between Protestants and Roman Catholics depend on the observance of the ‘canonical form’ and refuses to grant freedom to the partners of a mixed marriage in the education of their children the ecumenism of Rome—to say the least of it—will remain suspect. The Instructio Matrimonii Sacramentum of 1966 which for all practical purposes reiterates the legislation laid down by the Codex Iuris Canonici of 1918 shows that in spite of Vatican II the official attitude of the Holy See has remained intransigent. Nevertheless although the Roman Church has arbitrarily erected canonical barriers which interfere with or even (from a Roman Catholic point of view) invalidate the most intimate human relationship, we have no intention of doubting the ecumenical honesty and sincerity of Roman Catholics. It should be remembered that the Instructio is as unsatisfactory to many leading Roman Catholics as it is to the Churches of the Reformation. This can be deduced from the fact that at the First International Synod of Bishops (1967) 31 per cent of its members voted in favour of the removal of the present impediment of mixta religio including the promise to educate the children of a mixed marriage in the Roman Catholic faith.
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References
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