Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, CDS

Once again the secular media is having a field day with yesterday’s weddings at St. Peter’s where couples who had lived in sin and/or already had children were married by the Pope – as if this was some kind of groundbreaking event meant to reveal Francis’ shift away from Christ’s teachings on marriage.

According to Vatican Radio, all of the couples came from the diocese of Rome to be married by the Pope on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  Amidst the breathtaking background of the Basilica, and with their excited families looking on, each couple was married individually by the Pope with rings that were taken from a cushion embossed with the pope’s coat of arms.

During his homily, the Pope focused on the reality of marriage and how the daily hardship of it can cause them to become wear of it, to “lose the flavor of matrimony” and thus “cease to draw water from the well of the Sacrament.”

The cure for those couples who have succumbed to the dangerous temptation of discouragement, infidelity, weakness, and  abandonment, is the love of Christ.

It is that love, “which has blessed and sanctified the union of husband and wife, and is able to sustain their love and to renew it when, humanly speaking, it becomes lost, wounded or worn out,” he said. The love of Christ “can restore to spouses the joy of journeying together.”

This is what marriage is all about, he said, “a man and woman walking together, wherein the husband helps his wife to become ever more a woman, and wherein the woman has the task of helping her husband to become ever more a man.”

It was a beautiful ceremony which ended in loud applause and triumphant photos in the Vatican gardens.

However, this lovely memory is being marred by the scandal-driven media which did nothing but focus on the sins of the couples who came before the Pope to be married. This was done, of course, to fuel their narrative that Pope Francis is a “liberal” Catholic who is going to relax Church teaching on precisely the moral issues that prick the most consciences – premarital sex and cohabitation, homosexuality and same-sex “marriages”, contraception and abortion.

Articles blaring misleading headlines such as “Francis Breaks Taboos and Marries Cohabiting Couples” are appearing in all of the major news publications – the BBC, ABC News, Reuters, The Telegraph, etc. Because these articles were written by people who never stepped foot in a rectory let alone worked in one, they have no idea that the Church marries cohabiting couples all the time, as well as those who already have children or who were married before.

This is why the Diocese of Rome thought nothing of it when it issued a statement on September 10 saying that “Those who will get married Sunday are couples like many others.” They came from a variety of backgrounds, including some “who have been engaged for a long period of time or for not as long; there are those who are already cohabitating; who already have children; who got to know each other in church”.

News flash! This isn’t news! As the Catholic News Agency (CNA) explains, “While cohabitation is not in itself a canonical impediment to marriage, it is contrary to the church’s teaching on marriage and sexual love. The church urges that pastoral ministers help couples preparing for marriage by showing them the witness of Christian family life in such a way as they may regularize their situation before their wedding ceremony.”

As an example, they tell the story of one of the brides, known only as Gabriella, who was never married but had a daughter when she was very young. In fact, her daughter, who is now grown, attended the ceremony uniting her mother and her fiance, Guido, who was married before but has had an annulment.

“We’ve known each other for five years and our wanting to get married in the church stems from no longer wanting to live in a union and with feelings that are deprived of some of the sacraments,” the couple said.

Isn’t this what sinning couples are supposed to do? Repent and make amends?

“That a couple who have not been following the Church’s teachings regarding sexuality would choose to marry, to regularize their relationship, is a very good thing,” reminds popular blogger Kathy Schiffer.

“There is nothing new in this:  that the Church stands ready to receive them, to welcome them as part of our family… and then to provide the encouragement and the grace to go and sin no more.”

Perhaps the mainstream media – as well as those of us who like to jump to conclusions every time Pope Francis extends the love and mercy of Christ to sinners (e.g., “Who am I to judge?”) – need to be reminded of an old adage Schiffer quotes in her article: ” . . .(T)he Church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners.”

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