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Marriage Between Orthodox and Roman Catholics

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Marriage Between Orthodox and Roman Catholics St Vladimirs Theological Quarterly 53.4 (2009) 407-445 MARRIAGE BETWEEN ORTHODOX AND ROMAN CATHOLICS Catherine Clare Caridi Introduction Similar Doctrine, Dissimilar Historical Approach Can Orthodox and Catholics intermarry, and still remain members in good standing of their respective Churches? This appears to be a straightforward question, for which it ought to be relatively easy to find an accurate answer. After all, both of these Churches have existed for centuries, and each has developed rules, firmly grounded in theology, pertaining to the administration of the sacraments. In fact, it would be reasonable (and it is correct, as will become evident well before the end of this article) to presume that church discipline regarding the sacrament of matrimony is very similar, even virtually identical, in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. It must be kept in mind that for the first thousand years of Christianity, the distinction between Catholic and Orthodox Christians did not even exist! Both continue to believe and teach the same Christian doctrine expounded by the early Church Fathers, and they both embrace the seven major ecumenical councils held in the early centuries of Christianity. The Great Schism of 1054, which tragically separated East and West, was not the result of a disagreement specifically about sacramental discipline; and neither Church has subsequently introduced any drastic innovations into its teachings about Christian marriage. Yet it is at once both surprising and ironic to discover that, when asked for a theological justification of church disci­ pline regarding inter-marriage, the two Churches will produce 407 408 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY explanations that could hardly appear more dissimilar. Each will cite in detail sources that are not even mentioned in passing by the other. On a more fundamental level, each takes a procedural approach to the question that is radically different from that of the other. In this article, I intend to show that what is significantly differ­ ent is the historiographical approach of each Church to the devel­ opment of church teachings, and not the teachings themselves. It is the presentation of their justifications for current discipline concerning the sacrament of matrimony, and not the theological substance behind those justifications, that varies so dramatically. The Orthodox Church, on the one hand, will trace the history of its current beliefs by starting at their very roots, in the apostolic and early Christian era. It does not hesitate to cite, for exam­ ple, the texts of ancient ecumenical councils as the sources for its teachings on theological matters with contemporary relevance. Centuries-old canons and dogmatic opinions are then interpreted in the light of current doctrinal issues, and applied to both doctri­ nal and procedural questions. As a result, it is not unusual to find that a 21st-century issue is resolved by the application of a church teaching from another era, which is used as a guide to solving a current problem. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, approaches the notion of tracing the historical roots of its teachings in a markedly different manner. Rather than begin at the beginning, Catholi­ cism tends to trace the history of its teachings in the opposite direction. By starting with the most recent source and then work­ ing its way backwards in time, it is able to show that contempo­ rary practices, which frequently have been specifically developed to address present-day problems, derive in fact from a centuries- old, more-or-less unbroken chain of pronouncements, each based on, and building on, the one preceding it. But while it can usually trace its most fundamental doctrinal positions back to the same apostolic teachings and ecumenical councils cited by the Ortho­ dox Church, in fact it rarely does so, preferring instead to content Marriage between Orthodox and Roman Catholics 409 itself with providing more recent sources which it perceives as having more immediate relevance to whatever issue is at hand. Consequently, the reader who is aware of this distinction will be able to appreciate that, while their sources may appear to be totally different, the fundamental teachings of both Catholics and Orthodox on intermarriage are essentially the same. A superficial review of their explanations may lead one to believe that the two Churches share little in common on this issue, but it is necessary to keep in mind that what is differing here is more the presenta­ tion than the actual information. With regard to the many, many theological issues on which the two Churches agree, they cannot be said to have accidentally arrived at the same theological conclu­ sions via different paths; rather, they generally traveled down the same paths, but are now describing their journeys using a very different historic methodology. This article, therefore, will examine the current teachings and procedures of these two Churches pertaining to marriage between a Catholic and an Orthodox who both wish to remain practicing members of their respective Churches. It will begin by citing the current canon law and established practice of each Church, and then will trace the history behind these current practices, in each case by using the historical approach of the Church in question. In the process, it should become clear that Catholics and Ortho­ dox do in fact share many of the same, or nearly the same, teach­ ings on the sacrament of marriage and its celebration, although their historiographical justifications for their teachings bear little external similarity to each other. And since both share so much in common on the topic of marriage, it should surprise no one that the major issues surround­ ing intermarriage are broadly categorized in roughly the same manner by each Church: both have a body of teaching pertaining to the marriage of their own members with non-members (who in turn are divided into the baptized and the non-baptized); as well as a body of teaching pertaining to the canonical form of marriage, i.e., the external ceremonies that the celebration of the 410 ST VLADIMIR'S THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY sacrament must include, in order that it be recognized as having actually taken place. Both the current practice of each Church, and the historical reasons behind it, will therefore be subdivided along these lines. Having outlined the issue of intermarriage in theory, the final section will apply the theories to actual practice, and look at the concrete and specific case of a Catholic and an Orthodox who wish to get married without either party to the marriage abandon­ ing his/her faith or incurring any sanction or other penalty. It will remain to be seen, given the current positions of both Churches, whether in fact this is possible today. Orthodoxy's position on mixed marriage and canonical form — currently Marriage in the Orthodox Church requires unity of faith between the two spouses—in other words, both should be members of the Orthodox faith. In practice, however, mixed marriages can and do take place. Current practice should be seen not as a repudiation of Orthodox belief, but as a realization of the practical reality that significant numbers of members of the Orthodox faith (who constitute a decided minority of the world s population) do in fact wish to marry non-Orthodox. If the Orthodox Church were to refuse to allow them to marry, the well-founded fear would be that the Orthodox party would then marry outside the Church. This, in turn, might very well lead to abandonment of the faith altogether, and Orthodox authorities naturally want to prevent this from occurring. Orthodoxy also has its own canonical form for marriage. An Orthodox wedding ceremony must take place in an Orthodox church, before an Orthodox priest. Orthodox theology teaches clearly that the priest is the minister of the sacrament,1 and his 1 "Since the end of the 19th century, the common doctrine of the Orthodox Churches is that the sacrament of matrimony consists of the nuptial blessing of the priest, who is the minister of the sacrament" ("... dalla fine del secolo XIX è dottrina commune nelle Chiese ortodosse che il sacramento del matrimonio con­ siste nella benedizione nuziale del sacerdote, il quale è ministro del sacramento"). Marriage between Orthodox and Roman Catholics 411 nuptial blessing is a critical part of the wedding. The ceremony includes the crowning of both spouses, with the words "O Lord our God, crown them with honor and glory" said by the priest.2 History behind the current Uw on mixed marriages The ban on marriage between an Orthodox and a non-Orthodox can be traced all the way back to the Synod of Laodicea (ca. AD 363). Two canons from this synod are pertinent: canon X, which states that "the members of the Church shall not indiscriminately marry their children to heretics,"3 and canon XXXI, which essentially reaffirms canon X, stating that giving one's son or daughter in marriage to a heretic is not lawful. The Council of Chalcedon (AD 451) further buttresses this prohibition in its canon XIV, which pertains to church canons and lectors. It states that it is not lawful for such men to take heterodox wives, and also that they should not give their children in marriage to heretics. The canon further addresses those men serving as canons and lectors who may have already married a heretic before this prohibition was enacted, and the specific ways either to remedy the situation or at least to avoid compounding it. The Orthodox also cite in support of their prohibition on mixed marriages the teaching of the Council of Carthage (AD 419), at which was compiled the "Code of Canons of the Afri­ can Church." While the origins of this collection of Church law are unclear, it appears that it constitutes a compilation of canons enacted at various local councils in North Africa over a period of roughly 75 years.
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