"The impeded stream is the one that sings"
Pope Francis got himself in trouble last week for suggesting that the “great majority” of Catholic marriages being celebrated today are “invalid” because couples do not fully appreciate that they are making a lifetime commitment. The fact that this statement would draw criticism is puzzling, on the face of it, because who would dispute this after even a cursory glance at the world we live in?
Apparently conservative critics objected to his use of the word invalid. Perhaps they think that this word will provide a loophole for those seeking to escape loveless marriages. At any rate, canon lawyers and media spin artists quickly went to work on words such as invalid and great majority, seeking to downplay or reframe or somehow mitigate the pope’s comments and the ways in which they might be misconstrued.
But, as is so often the case, once you sniff around a bit behind the sensationalistic headlines you discover that the point being made is actually a rather unexceptional one. And, as it happens, a desperately necessary one. Here are a few more of Francis’s comments:
