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When Pope Francis married 20 couples two weeks ago, it was the first time a pope had done so in over a decade. It's too bad Francis seems to think half of all marriages aren't valid.
The pope said as much last year when he was asked on the papal plane about communion for divorced and remarried Catholics. His predecessor in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Antonio Quarracino, the pope remarked, "used to say that as far as he was concerned, half of all marriages are null. But why did he say this? Because people get married lacking maturity, they get married without realizing that it is a lifelong commitment, they get married because society tells them they have to get married."
This should weigh heavily on the minds of bishops when they gather in Rome next month for a Synod on the family. Some churchmen have predictably begun arguing with each other over what to do. Most notably, Cardinal Walter Kasper sketched out possible "pastoral and spiritual procedures" for divorced and remarried Catholics to return to church, which may spell the end of annulments. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the current prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a position once held by Pope Benedict XVI, said such "theories are radically mistaken."
While Kasper's arguments tend to roil the traditional wing of the Catholic Church, a sense of urgency for the Vatican to say something new about marriage is borne out in the numbers. Recent surveys estimate that about 28 to 32 percent of Catholic marriages end in divorce. "Although the Catholic 'divorce rate' is lower than the U.S. average," Mark Gray of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University suggests, "it is still a daunting figure."
Worse still, since 2000, polls seem to show a collapse of the Catholic wedding. Marriage, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, is an indissoluble "covenant between baptized persons" for "the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring." But, Gray writes, "Catholics marrying these days are just as likely, if not more likely, to celebrate their marriages at the beach or country club than in their parish." Requests for annulments are also down.
When it comes to understanding the spiritual importance of marriage, Catholics are losing something along the way. Even though the Church is perhaps more doctrinally serious about marriage than most other Christian denominations (which may explain why the Catholic divorce rate is lower than the Protestant number), the divorcees may not be entirely to blame. It might have something to do with that part where couples promise fidelity "until death do us part."
The idea that marriage is only an earthly institution comes from Scripture. "At the resurrection," Jesus tells the Sadducees in Matthew 22:30, "they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven."
Most Christians take Jesus at his word, but Mormons say Jesus didn't tell the Sadducees everything. Members of the Utah-based church believe that marriages "sealed" in temples are eternal. The Latter-day notion that the family is forever has acted as a high barrier to divorce. Catholic and Mormon civil divorce rates have stayed relatively similar over the years, but as for Mormons who marry in a temple, only 6 percent of them break up.
Even though Mormons can probably teach Catholics something about the indissolubility of marriage, Rome isn't likely to take it under advisement. The Mormon understanding of eternal marriage can produce some theological quirks, like the belief that Jesus was married or that there can be posthumous marriages. That Mormons reject the trinity, a key Catholic dogma, doesn't help either.
But Francis may be one pope uniquely open to hearing what other faith traditions have to say. The pontiff has frequently met and prayed with leaders of other faiths, and seems predisposed to interfaith dialogue. If the road to marriage reform took a detour through Salt Lake City, Catholics could begin to see a marriage rebound with eternal consequences.
Nicholas G. Hahn III is the editor of RealClearReligion.org.