A leading member of the clergy in Ireland has criticised Boris Johnson’s marriage in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral as an “embarrassment” and a “ loophole ” that makes a “mockery” of the Church’s teaching on the sanctity of marriage.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, Fr Tim Hazelwood, a spokesman for the Association of Catholic Priests, said the British prime minister’s marriage “exposes a very narrow, legalistic view of marriage in the Catholic Church”.
He called on canon lawyers to regularise the rules to make them consistent and to expand the recognition of other kinds of marriage.
The Church’s view of marriage, he said, is “archaic and is based on the mindset that our way is the only way”.
Twice-divorced Mr Johnson was able to marry Carrie Symonds in a Catholic ceremony because his previous marriages were deemed invalid as they did not take place in a Catholic church.
He divorced his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1993 and his second wife Marina Wheeler in 2020.
The Catholic Church does not permit divorce and Catholics whose marriages end in divorce are expected to remain single while their former spouse remains alive. Only if they secure an annulment can they remarry. An annulment deems the marriage to have never existed.
In a tweet, canon lawyer Fr Gary Dench said the UK politician’s marriage “does raise the question about whether the Church’s laws regarding the canonical form of marriage, and the extent to which they can permit Catholics to run through several invalid marriages, and still marry in Church later, are just or fit for purpose”.
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The perceived injustices of Catholic marriage law were also raised in a tweet by UCD historian Dr Mary McAuliffe who said: “A twice or thrice (who knows) divorced father of unknown number of children, & also a proven liar, was permitted to marry in a Catholic Cathedral (no less!), & it was claimed by said Catholic Church that marriage equality would be the thing to degrade marriage.”
Fr Hazelwood agreed with this point. He told the Irish Independent: “It is an inconsistent loophole. A gay couple cannot even get a blessing and yet somebody who has been married three or four times can walk in and marry in a Catholic ceremony, so long as their other marriages were outside the Church.
“It is very legalistic, and this incident makes a mockery of what marriage is meant to be or what the Church says it’s meant to be. I believe that the Church needs to look at the theology of marriage and it needs to be more people-centred, than rules-centred, or legal-centred.”
The Co Cork parish priest said he himself had “on numerous occasions” married couples where one partner has already been married and is divorced.
“In every village in the country you have people who went to England and met someone who had been married, maybe in a registry office, and later got divorced,” he said.
“One of the questions in the marriage papers that we prepare for a church wedding asks have you been married before. There is a dispensation couples can get. So, Boris isn’t unusual. It is quite common, but it is inconsistent.”
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