The Fides—Sacramentum Matrimonii Relationship in the Post-Synodal Era (2015—). A New Concept of Response to Doctrinal Impulses
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/EaL.2023.11.1.01Keywords:
Synod of Bishops, International Theological Commission, Pope Benedict XVI, relationship between faith and sacraments, sacrament of marriage, sacramentality of marriages of “baptized non-believers”, jurisprudenceAbstract
In 2020 the International Theological Commission published an important document: The Reciprocity Between Faith and Sacraments in the Sacramental Economy. The document is a presentation of six years of expert work on exploring the relationship between faith and the sacraments. The original theological justification, offered here, of the specific role of faith in the validity and fruitfulness of each sacrament culminates, in some ways, in a focus on an ecclesiastically sensitive “area” (Ecclesia domestica) — which is already foreshadowed by the initial declarations under the “emphatic” subtitle: Faith and the Sacraments: A Reciprocity in Crisis. What is addressed here is a serious scholarly proposal for further reintegration of the doctrine of de sacramento matrimonii, with a nodal understanding of the issue of the sacramental dignity of marriage — a study strongly awaited since it is set in the context of the two memorable assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, of 2014 and 2015.
Adopting the hypothesis of justifiability of the title demarcation line (2015—), marking the “post-synodal era,” bestowed upon the author of this study — consequently — a need to comprehensively examine how the International Theological Commission implemented in concreto the synodal appeals of bishops in 2014 — the first appeal (from Instrumentum laboris of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops): “there is a need to deepen the question of the relationship between faith and the Sacrament of Matrimony”; and a later appeal (from Relatio Synodi of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops): “it is necessary to consider the possibility of giving importance to the faith of the nupturients in ascertaining the validity of the Sacrament of Marriage, all the while maintaining that the marriage of two baptized Christians is always a sacrament.” In the concluding remarks the author answers the question that preoccupies the canonist: Can it be assumed that the result of the Commission’s six-year long work is — important for the canonical doctrine and, above all, helpful for the consistent jurisprudence — a clarification of the questio dubia: “baptized non-believers” and the sacrament of marriage?
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