Why the German Bishops are Wrong about Abstinence for “Remarried” Catholics

(CNS photo/Daniel Karmann, EPA)

Why the German Bishops are Wrong about Abstinence for “Remarried” Catholics | Dr. Stephan Kampowski | CWR

The second part of an essay examining the theological arguments put forward for the readmission of the divorced and civilly remarried to Communion.

This is the second part of an essay by Dr. Kampowski addressing theological arguments on divorce and remarriage, especially as these questions were raised during last year’s Synod of Bishops. In the coming weeks, Catholic World Report will be publishing Dr. Kampowski’s essay in five installments. The first can be read here.

One may wonder why Eberhard Schockenhoff claims that the step of entering into a second union is supposedly considered the “one unforgivable sin.”  John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio and Benedict XVI’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis have made it clear that even those who are living in a second union, due to common commitments they cannot abandon, are not therefore confined to a tragic situation in which they have to sin. There is a morally feasible way out, namely, to make the commitment to live together as brother and sister, abstaining from acts that are proper to spouses. In a common publication my colleague Prof. Juan José Pérez-Soba and I wondered why in the pre-synodal debate this existing pastoral solution for accompanying the divorced and civilly remarried had been virtually excluded from public ecclesial discourse.  It is hence a welcome step forward for the discussion that in its recent publication the German Bishops’ Conference explains the reasons why, to its mind, the solution offered by Familiaris Consortio n. 84 and Sacramentum Caritatis n. 29 is not helpful. In the whole document, the bishops essentially advance three considerations. On page 58 the first two arguments are presented, according to which the said proposal “isolates the sexual realm” and asks too much of the faithful:

To many of those concerned, the ecclesial advice of a conjugal life without sexual relations seems morally questionable, since it isolates the sexual realm and disintegrates life’s sexual dimension from the loving togetherness of man and woman. It tends to ask too much of those concerned and corresponds to the choice of a celibate form of life, to which, however, they are not called. 

A little further down the bishops expand on why they think a more differentiated assessment of sexual acts in second unions may be called for. They begin by elaborating on the previously mentioned point about the isolation of the sexual realm:

The ecclesial provisions currently effective assess sexual relations in the new partnership as sinful. These provisions stand in a certain tension with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council on marriage. Marriage is not simply a sexual communion, but a personal relation of mutual love, to which belongs also the mutual sexual giving of oneself. This process view of marriage as a relational event contradicts the isolated consideration and assessment of sexual acts. 

Then a further, new argument is advanced:

The Church can recognize the obligations that grow out of a new union. […] Such a union […] is a morally significant reality and cannot be arbitrarily destroyed without the partners incurring grave guilt. The exhortation to sexual continence in the new union can be morally questionable if it endangers the permanence of this union, from which not rarely children have sprung. 

Thus there are essentially three reasons for why, to the mind of the majority of the German bishops, the proposal of Familiaris Consortio and Sacramentum Caritatis needs rethinking: calling the divorced and civilly remarried to a life of abstinence

 isolates the sexual realm;
asks too much of people who do not have the call to celibacy;
endangers the new union that can be considered a morally significant reality.

In what follows we will discuss these arguments one by one.

Continue reading at www.CatholicWorldReport.com.