Moscow, November 23, 2017
Photo: ria.ru On the agenda of the upcoming session of the Council of Bishops is the question of how many times the Church should bless the faithful to marry, as Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations Archpriest Nikolai Balashov stated in a recent press conference, RIA-Novosti reports.
“How many times is it allowable to marry, and should only marriages blessed with a Church wedding be counted, or also those that were concluded in the civil order, in the registry office? There is no clear answer in current ecclesiastical law, and as for how to interpret the canonical norms we do have, in new conditions where marriages consist of more than the blessing in the Church, there are different answers. A decision will be made at the council,” Fr. Nikolai said.
Marriages in Russia must be registered in a civil ceremony, whether or not the couple also has a Church ceremony.
The Church has already been examining the “On Church Marriage” document for several years. According to Deputy Chancellor Archimandrite Savva (Tutunov), the question is firstly about bringing all canonical norms into a single text.
“Church law on marriage up to this point has mainly been based on provisions adopted in the 18th-19th centuries. Some things need to be adapted to modern times, to prescribe formulas and procedures,” Archimandrite Savva said.
The Church currently allows two Church weddings, but a third is not blessed. Divorce is possible with the permission of the ruling hierarch. The spouse who is to blame for the divorce can marry again, but only after repentance and the fulfillment of a penance… This is typically separation from Communion for a certain period.
The Council of Bishops is one of the highest bodies of administration of the Russian Orthodox Church. Its next session will be held at Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral under the chairmanship of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill from November 29 to December 4. The session is dedicated to the centenary of the restoration of the patriarchate to the Russian Church.
But if divorce were to be unilaterally forbidden, then evil people would be emboldened to commit adultery if they know that they will not suffer anything for their actions and the inoocent party will be stuck with them. Divorce is a necessary evil to scare humans away from adultery, as execution is a necessary evil to scare humans away from murder.