Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George D. Gallaro: Oikonomia and Marriage Dissolution in the Christian East
OIKONOMIA AND MARRIAGE DISSOLUTION 123 is easier for the Eastern Church to apply economy. The history of marriage in the West developed through the centuries along the path of the Roman law dressed in Christian clothes; in the East instead it developed along the path of mystical theology.61 The Nomocanon of Patriarch Photius (Title 13, chapter 4) deals with divorce.62 The Patriarch of Constantinople does not make a dissertation on the subject. He only deals with it by quoting the legal sources upon which the regulations were based during the first centuries until his days. In first place he quotes the various canons of the Church: the First Apostolic Canon, the Fourteenth Canon of the Synod of Gangra; the Hundred and Second Canon of the Synod of Carthage; the Eighty-Seventh Canon of the Sixth Ecumenical Council; the Ninth, Thirty-Fifth, Forty-Eighth and Seventy-Seventh Canons of St. Basil. None of these canons admits divorce in the sense of permitting the second marriage of separated Christians. Moreover, the Nomocanon quotes the civil laws ofjustinian where divorce is admitted but in limited specific cases. It is a very fine distinction: first the law of the Church is quoted by indicating the theological aspect of the argument, then the laws of the State which are transitory laws of economy where the Church manifests its tolerance for opportunity reasons, namely to avoid greater evils. Today the ancient situation has remained unchanged in the Eastern Church, at least in theory. The bishop acts with ample faculties: some of them are more indulgent, but most are rather difficult to grant divorce. Conclusions After a careful investigation on marriage and indissolubility in the Christian East during the first millennium, we can draw the following valuable conclusions: a) Indissolubility is considered by the Church common tradition as a constitutive element of marriage, b) The Church has never admitted the possibility that marriage may be dissolved by the will of the contracting parties, c) The breaking of the marriage bond was always considered an evil act subject to ecclesiastical penalties and public penances, d) Only adultery and a very few similar grave cases were considered in the beginning as possible causes for the dissolution of a marriage, e) Spouses separated by mutual consent and contracting a new marriage were never readmitted to the Eucharistic Banquet (unless they ceased the adulterous union), f) The Church acknowledged non-sacra61 G. Cereti, Divorzio, move nozze e penitenza nella Chiesa primitiva, Bologna 1977, 363fF; Aa.Vv., Manage, in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique IX, 2: Paris 1927, 2044-2335; A. Palmieri, Il rito per le seconde nozze nella Chiesa Greco-ortodossa, Bari 2007, 1 Iff. & 125ff. 62 Pedalion, Athens 1976; The Rudder, Chicago 1957; The Rudder or Pedalion of the One Holy Catholic Apostolic Church — Version 1.0, West Brookfield (Ma) 2007.
