Monday, June 29, 2015

ROCOR Responds to Supreme Court Ruling

Word via Fr. Patrick (Reardon) that priests in the Russian Church Abroad are no longer blessed to sign any civil marriage documents in the United States.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

5 comments:

lannes said...

Unlike our Supreme Court justices -- who must be even more ancient than the Russian Orthodox hierarchs -- they at least have the balls to defy the gay
hurricane that is coming.

6/29/2015 6:36 PM
Clear Waters said...

They have my applause. This is the correct stand to take.

6/29/2015 9:15 PM
Greg DeLassus said...

I think that the Russian bishops' response is exactly right. I remember reading somewhere that Fr. Reardon has also adopted the policy for his own parish that he will not sign IL marriage licenses.

I think that it is prudent and advantageous for married Christian couples to have their marriages registered with (and therefore recognized by) the state, but the Church should not involve Herself with such things. It has been made quite clear that what the Church means by "marriage" and what the state means by "marriage" are two very different things (not mutually exclusive, but the degree of overlap is narrow enough as to deserve two separate words by this point), and the Church should not confuse the issue by continuing to act as ministers of the State on this point.

We should do just like they do in France. One has a civil wedding at the City Hall, followed by a sacramental wedding in the parish church. The two ceremonies are entirely distinct. Each has its own purpose, and neither has anything to do with the other.

6/30/2015 10:29 AM
Abbot Theodore said...

I am told the Bulgarian Archdiocese has done the same. It is a step long overdue, and I applaud them. Hopefully, all our jurisdictions will follow suit.

7/06/2015 7:43 PM
Abbot Theodore said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
7/06/2015 7:43 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)