Kanonische Aspekte über die Pastoration der Familie

Abstract

The author of the paper „Canonical Aspects regarding the Pastorship of the Family” starts from the fact the man and the woman, in their perfection, cannot be understood alone, but only “together”. The family emerged from this constitutive “being together” as the primary and inalienable realization of communion. The “little church”, i.e. the family, is also founded on the descent of the Holy Spirit through the sacrament of marriage, which can be called “the little Pentecost” in the “ecclesia minor”. We confess that the Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic. This is how we understand the little church, the family, as a divine gift that cannot be negotiated. The author emphasises that the Orthodox Church teaches that marriage is an indissoluble sacrament. The indissolubility of marriage is practically not a fact already realized through the sacrament, but a quality that is preserved and fulfilled throughout life. Divorce is a sin and a tragedy. Divorce belongs to our existence, so it cannot be ignored and, unfortunately, cannot be forbidden. Divorce does not abolish the indissolubility of marriage, it abandons it. The author underlines that the Orthodox Church does not accept divorce, because she cannot accept the sin, but she tolerates and recognizes divorce as a painful, indisputable reality. According to the principle of oikonomia, the Church has to choose between two undesirable situations: either to reject the divorced as a great sin or to tolerate the divorced and give a new chance. The author has attempted to show that the Church chooses the lesser evil from these two.