Folia Canonica 8. (2005)

STUDIES - Grigorios D. Papathomas: An Open Ecclesial Communitarism: Dispar-Mixed Marriages and Adult Converions

DISPAR-MIXED MARRIAGES AND ADULT CONVERSIONS

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person that was not a catechumen, ie. an idolater, wanted to marry a baptised believer — or even a non-baptised catechumen — who was a member of the Church? It is exactly this context and that need that engendered dispar marriage, as has occurred more recently (end of 19th century) and for similar reasons, with mixed marriage.

II. Dispar (Interreligious) Marriage

To those who doubt the historical authenticity and reality of such marriage, we would like to ask a question: at a given time in History, why did the Church — in addition to its practice of celebrating marriage as part of the Holy Liturgy (either that of Believers or that of Catechumens) — totally disassociate the ceremony of marriage from the Holy Liturgy and create a new form of Ceremony that is structurally identical to that of the Holy Liturgy, but lacks the Holy Communion and the common cup? In the course of time, did the Church take that action in order to exclude a certain category of persons (persons who were not baptised, professed other religions or were heterodox), or rather in order to include - in a way known only to the Church itself - to accept and to bless ( 1 Cor. 7:14, 16) not only its baptised member, but also his/her spouse? In other words, is the new liturgical non-eucharistic type of marriage established by the Church aimed at exclusion or inclusion and receptive opening? This issue is clear for the Church. This was done precisely to avoid imposing baptism as an a priori or preliminary condition, and to avoid Conversion, as is more generally required today. Simply, the practice which prevailed much later, setting institutional obstacles for aforementioned reasons which will be analysed further below, brought about a change and today presents, on one hand, a Church without openings towards Creation and the whole World and, on the other hand, an ecclesiastical body which, in self-defence, proposes solutions restraining freedom or forcing double religious belonging.

Let us specify that the Roman Catholic Church has kept that type of marriage in force, whereas the Orthodox Church has abolished it since the Fall (1453), ie. it no longer celebrates dispar marriages and, of course, does not recognise them. We can take a look, however, at what actually happened: the dispar marriage was already known in the New Testament as praxis (1 Cor. 7:1-40). The early Church lived in a highly idolatrous environment, where idolatrous religions prevailed. Many members of the Church, who were baptised believers, got married to non-baptised idolaters. The Church blessed their marriage (1 Cor 7:14, 16). The evidence that such a marriage was truly accepted is its separation from the Holy Eucharist and its removal from the Holy Liturgy. In addition, when one member of a married couple of idolaters converted to Christianity, the early Church pro-