Grace present even when marriage fails, Nichols says

A “BROKEN” marriage remains a source of grace, according to Cardinal Vincent Nichols, speaking at a special Mass on Saturday celebrating the sacrament of matrimony.

Christ was actively present in every sacramental marriage, Cardinal Nichols told more than 500 couples, who were among the congregation at Westminster Cathedral.

He said that Christ was a partner in marriage, adding: “So we have to grasp the challenging truth that even when the human relationships within a marriage disintegrate and break down, something recognised in a civil divorce, there remains in that marriage the Word of Christ, given and never revoked.”

From this arises a demanding and painful question, the cardinal continued: what was the grace of marriage that remains for the spouse in such a situation?

“Perhaps it is the grace of sorrow and repentance, the grace of being able to see and embrace the hurt done through that breakdown and the responsibilities that flow from it?” he said. “Perhaps that recognition is the first step on the pathway of mercy and of conversion.”

His words come months before he flies to Rome for the opening of the second Synod on the Family, and recall comments made to The Tablet ahead of last October’s first synod, when he said that he could now envisage a “demanding penitential pathway” by which divorced and remarried Catholics could  be allowed to receive Communion.