But this is cool, no? The first pope in history ever to bless a marriage on a flight in a jet plane! From the National Catholic Register:
Paula Podest and Carlos
Ciuffardi, married by Pope Francis aboard the papal plane en route to
Iquique, Chile, Jan. 18. Below, their marriage certificate drawn up by
cardinals who accompanied the Pope on his flight. (Alvaro de Juana/CNA)
Love Is in the Air: Pope Francis Marries Couple Mid-Flight During Chile Visit
The Holy Father blessed the civilly married flight attendants' marriage during a flight from Santiago to Iquique, Chile.
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — In his five
years in office, Pope Francis gained a reputation for tossing protocol
and embracing spontaneity. Today, he did it again with another papal
first: marrying two flight attendants on board his flight from Santiago
to Iquique.
According to journalists traveling with the Pope, the couple — Paula Podest and Carlos Ciuffardi — went to the Pope during the Jan. 18 flight to ask for his blessing.
The couple told Francis they had been civilly married, but had not been able to get married in the Church because their parish was destroyed in the massive 8.8 earthquake that rocked Santiago in 2010.
In response, the Pope offered to marry them on the spot. Ignacio Cueto, owner of the airline company, LATAM, was a witness in the ceremony.
According to Ciuffardi, who spoke briefly with journalists after the ceremony, the Pope asked the couple if they were married yet, and when they explained why they hadn't been married in the Church, he said, “Do you want to get married?”
The Holy Father, Ciuffardi said, asked them “Are you sure, absolutely sure?” They said Yes, gave the Pope Podest's ring and asked Cueto if he would be a witness. The Pope then blessed the ring, placed their hands together, offered some brief reflections and pronounced them husband and wife.
According to Ciuffardi, Francis told them what happened “was historic,” because “never has a Pope married a couple on a plane.”
Referring to the rings, Francis jested that they shouldn’t be too tight, because “they would be a torture,” nor too loose, because they might lose them.
Since they didn't have an official marriage certificate to sign, Pope Francis asked the cardinals with him to draft one, so they grabbed a piece of blank copy paper and each signed their names and what role they played in the ceremony. One of the cardinals also signed as a witness.
The Pope also gave the couple two rosaries, Podest received a white rosary and Ciuffardi a black one.
The couple — who have two children, Rafaela, 6 and Isabela, 3 — said they will be traveling with the Pope to Iquique, and from there will take a different flight to another destination, and will celebrate after.
“It was something historic, really. Very exciting,” Ciuffardi said. “What he told us was very important: He told us 'this is the sacrament that the world needs, the sacrament of marriage. Hopefully, this will motivate couples around the world to get married.’”
According to journalists traveling with the Pope, the couple — Paula Podest and Carlos Ciuffardi — went to the Pope during the Jan. 18 flight to ask for his blessing.
The couple told Francis they had been civilly married, but had not been able to get married in the Church because their parish was destroyed in the massive 8.8 earthquake that rocked Santiago in 2010.
In response, the Pope offered to marry them on the spot. Ignacio Cueto, owner of the airline company, LATAM, was a witness in the ceremony.
According to Ciuffardi, who spoke briefly with journalists after the ceremony, the Pope asked the couple if they were married yet, and when they explained why they hadn't been married in the Church, he said, “Do you want to get married?”
The Holy Father, Ciuffardi said, asked them “Are you sure, absolutely sure?” They said Yes, gave the Pope Podest's ring and asked Cueto if he would be a witness. The Pope then blessed the ring, placed their hands together, offered some brief reflections and pronounced them husband and wife.
According to Ciuffardi, Francis told them what happened “was historic,” because “never has a Pope married a couple on a plane.”
Referring to the rings, Francis jested that they shouldn’t be too tight, because “they would be a torture,” nor too loose, because they might lose them.
Since they didn't have an official marriage certificate to sign, Pope Francis asked the cardinals with him to draft one, so they grabbed a piece of blank copy paper and each signed their names and what role they played in the ceremony. One of the cardinals also signed as a witness.
The Pope also gave the couple two rosaries, Podest received a white rosary and Ciuffardi a black one.
The couple — who have two children, Rafaela, 6 and Isabela, 3 — said they will be traveling with the Pope to Iquique, and from there will take a different flight to another destination, and will celebrate after.
“It was something historic, really. Very exciting,” Ciuffardi said. “What he told us was very important: He told us 'this is the sacrament that the world needs, the sacrament of marriage. Hopefully, this will motivate couples around the world to get married.’”
18 comments:
HIS HOLINESS IS THE SUPREME LEGISLATOR ISN'T HE?
An illicit act by a pope does not constitute legislation. No more than an illicit act by me or you or by any priest or other bishop does. You, I, and the pope are equally subject to the laws of the Church.
Confusion between violation of law by a Church legislator, and legislation of law by him, is typical of 1970s seminary mentality.
Everyone is free to commit illicit acts. The difference between me, you, and the pope is one of results. If you as a priest do something flagrantly wrong, you may be punished. But there is no one to punish the pope, at least, not here below.
No, I don't think this is cool. This, to me, is like distributing sacraments out of a Pez Dispenser. Since 2010, they weren't able to find an intact parish/church in which to be properly married?????? This type of selective photo-op 'mercy' only serves to weaken our sacraments, weaken the priesthood and turn the church into another version of city hall. I would love to hear one of our Orthodox Christian reader's reaction to this and the likelihood of this ever happening, outside of an extreme circumstance like imminent death, within their church.
This is 1970's pastoral lenience and how the spirit of Vatican II corrupted the celebration of the Sacraments pure and simple. It is a feel-good theology well intentioned but without any thought to its logical conclusion.
Bride Paola Podest, 39, and groom Carlos Ciuffardi, 41, said “I do” after telling Francis that they had been married in a civil service in 2010 but had been unable to follow up with a church ceremony because of the Feb. 27, 2010, earthquake that rocked Chile.
Ciuffardi said the pope also told them: “This is the sacrament that is missing in the world, the sacrament of marriage. May this motivate others to get the sacrament of marriage. I’ll do it for this reason.”
=======================================================
May Pope Francis' promotion of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony take root throughout the world.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark, is the pope and are you saying the ends justifies the means or is this simply justifying one's compulsive actions?
"If the end doesn't justify the means, what does?"
The next papal aphorism?
Western Catholicism has long separated the sacrament of matrimony from the priesthood (and, by logical extension, from connection to symbols of priestly service such as the church building). The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the free consent of the couple is the form of the sacrament of matrimony, not the blessing of the priest. This belief has led to the priesthood becoming optional for the witnessing of Catholic weddings and the performance of the non-Nuptial Mass wedding liturgy (Code of Canon Law, Canons 1112.1 and 1112.2). Adjacent to this development is the permission to perform weddings outside a sacred building in some cases (Canon 1118.2). Clearly, a sacrament that is administered by lay people, may be witnessed by lay people, and be completed in the context of a liturgy celebrated by lay people, can hardly be argued to have an important connection to a sacred building. Additionally, offense at this gesture of the Pope is a little too late for what is already permitted in principle (weddings outside churches) cannot be viewed as all too inappropriate (or else the Church is a purveyor of impiety, which is dogmatically inadmissible).
There is a reason why Orthodox Christians do not allow weddings outside a sacred space (except under oikonomia in truly exceptional situations such as war or persecution). This discipline is undoubtedly connected to the essential presence of the priesthood in the administration of the sacrament of matrimony in Orthodox Christianity. However, once the priesthood is believed to be non-essential for the performance of the wedding, there is no longer any reason why sacred space that is connected to sacred rites of priestly service would be maintained as integral to the administration of matrimony. In fact, retention of such a practice will decrease in proportion to the replacement of laity for priests in wedding rites as well as the growth of secularism among Catholics.
Father McDonald said..."Mark, is the pope and are you saying the ends justifies the means or is this simply justifying one's compulsive actions?"
Father, I appreciate your concerns in regard to the "airplane marriage." Whether Pope Francis' decision in question will yield positive results remains to be seen.
However, Father, I believe that you offered the key phrase in regard to the marriage in question. Father, as you noted, the Holy Father's action was "well intentioned."
As the groom noted, Pope Francis said: “This is the sacrament that is missing in the world, the sacrament of marriage. May this motivate others to get the sacrament of marriage. I’ll do it for this reason.”
Pope Francis acted in good faith. He desires to "motivate others to get the sacrament of marriage." That is why I hope that "Pope Francis' promotion of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony take root throughout the world."
Pax.
Mark Thomas
Mark, the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Did the couple ask for the convalidation? Who would say no to a pope initiating such a thing? One would hope that before suggesting an instant convalidation, the Holy Father would have had a private session with them without other passengers huddled around listening to answers from delicate questions. Do they intend to have children, be faithful? Are their any marital issues now? And so on.
And the pope could have suggested that they wait until they arrive at the airport, call ahead so the pope has the proper liturgical books, a stole and adequate room for such a sacred event, not seated in a small space for a pr event for the world to see.
No Mark, pope Francis has contradicted himself on adequate marriage preparation which the synod on the family insisted because marriage is a joke today where weddings take place for sentimental purposes in very unusual places and usually not a church, His Holiness has encouraged by example no pre Cana and make it up as you go liturgy. It is sentimentalty not leadership pastoral or otherwise.
But yes, it was well intentioned but compulsive! It won't help the broader Church but I am sure the couple was deeply touched by the pope's act of clericalism.
I'm just glad they're no longer fornicators and that their children are no longer bastards.
But are there children? Have they been baptized? Are they being raised according the the law of Christ and his Church? I wonder if any of this was broached by the pope in his spontaneous act of kindness, which I think he was doing in a compulsive way and very tired more than likely. By clericalism, I mean, a priest, bishop or pope thinks I am above the law and I can do whatever I want, but you can't.
Are they open to having children or does their lifestyle prevent them from wanting them?
"The couple — who have two children, Rafaela, 6 and Isabela, 3...". Probably not baptized, because the airplane is the only place in the world were sacraments are available to this couple, and the pope is the only priest available to them, apparently.
This strikes me as trivialization of the sacrament by the Pope. Priests spend weeks preparing young couples for the sacrament of matrimony and the Publicity Hound Pope pulls a stunt like this. How demoralizing to good priests who take their work seriously.
"It all interests me because twice recently, 2 January and 14 January, I have vigorously argued against the apparent belief of some superhyperueberpapalists, that the Roman Pontiff, just because he makes and dispenses from laws, is himself above the Law.
"And if it were to be asserted that 'By doing X, PF tacitly dispensed himself from the law(s) against X', I would regard the implications of that approach as thoroughly disturbing ... almost like the Nazi notion that the Fuehrer's will is the Supreme Law. The whole business would suggest the ugly idea that 'I'm the Pope and so I can do anything'.
"Indeed he is and indeed he can't."
http://liturgicalnotes.blogspot.com/2018/01/men-de.html
There's more here than meets the eye. It's been 8 years since their home parish was devastated by an earthquake. It doesn't sound as though they were living as 'brother and sister' since then. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they do have two children. Perhaps they are adopted children. I didn't read that the Pope heard their confessions. Perhaps he did that in the Airport lounge.
This is his modus operandi. Always a theatrical event on an airplane where the plot thickens. Cardinal Cupich reported to the Catholic Herald UK that AL was "the fruit of two synods" This stunt in the air is more publicity supporting Amoris Laetitia. It's a real attention getter too. And it's more 'brainwashing' for the sheep and the shepherds who suffer so from it. Some of them.
Cupich is an intellectual lightweight. Since he's become Archbishop of Chicago, I haven't given the archdiocese a dime, and I tell them why: when we have a Catholic archbishop, I will start kicking in again
Dear Fr Allan.
The degradation of the catholic sacramental system continues.
It is my belief that this joke aeroplane wedding forms part of this movement.
After the awarding of a papal medal to an active pro abortion Dutch politician anything is possible in the Petrine office.
Almost every single traditional catholic belief including the Ten Commandments has been slighted or attacked by the alleged incumbent of that office.
Now Fr. Allan the situation can only be read as follows :Pope Benedicts abdication was invalid , or ,if valid , his successor has now vacated the office through collective formal and public heresy.
People have said to me I can not make that judgement only the collective church can do that.
Sorry Fr. Allan, when I see a thief rob a bank I do not have to wait for the court case to find him guilty.
Every best wish.
John Larkin.
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