Francis celebrates weddings that reflect ‘modern matrimony’

In a rare celebration of marriages by a pope, Francis presided over the vows of 20 ­couples from the Rome Diocese, at St Peter’s last Sunday. Several of the couples were cohabiting, or had children from previous relationships, and this was widely seen as a signal to the family synod starting in two weeks that the Church must be more open to the realities of modern matrimony.

One bride, Alessandra Pucci, who has an eight-year-old son from a previous relationship, said she and her husband-to-be were “incredulous” at being chosen. Her son, Filippo, was a ring-bearer and was given a seat of honour near his mother.

Gabriella Improta had a grown-up daughter out of wedlock, and her groom, Guido Tassara, was previously married but had his marriage annulled. The emotional bride said: “We hope that our story gives hope to those who are co­habiting and have given up on marrying before God.”
Francis’ homily adopted a “realistic” tone regarding marriage but at the same time emphasised the sustaining role of Christian faith. It was human for love in relationships “to become lost, wounded or worn out”, he emphasised, but marriage “is the sacrament of the love of Christ and the Church, a love which finds its proof and guarantee in the Cross”, he said.

Emphasising that the family is indispensable in the good society, he explained that families are “the  ‘bricks’ for the building of society”.

Pope John Paul II performed the last papal public marriage ceremony in 2000 as part of the Jubilee for Families.

Meanwhile, the president of the German bishops’ conference, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, said he would be contributing a paper at the coming synod in October which lay “in the direction” of the line Cardinal Walter Kasper had taken in his address to the car­dinals at the consistory in March this year. Cardinal Kasper had favoured taking a “merciful” line with remarried divorcees who wanted to receive Communion, and Cardinal Marx said most German bishops agreed with this and supported his paper.

Cardinal Marx also warned that “this Pope is not concerned with changing church teaching but wants it applied directly to the ­situations in which people live in such a way that it really touches them and proves salutary”.

n Five cardinals have co-authored a book defending church teaching and practice regarding divorced and remarried Catholics. To be published in English next month, Remaining in the Truth of Christ: Marriage and Communion in the Catholic Church responds to the recommendations of Cardinal Kasper. The five are Cardinals Gerhard Müller, Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller, Carlo Caffarra and Velasio De Paolis.