The Priest and Personal Status Matters

: The Priest and Personal Status Matters

The General Message of the Lecture

This lecture addresses the responsibility of the priest in dealing with personal status matters, especially the sacrament of marriage, from a Coptic Orthodox Church perspective. It emphasizes that the priest is accountable before God and the Church for any marriage conducted unlawfully, as this directly affects the salvation of souls and the sanctity of the sacrament.

Lecture Summary

1. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III affirms that a priest who officiates an uncanonical marriage bears a grave spiritual responsibility, because such a marriage is considered a continuous sin.
2. He stresses the necessity of carefully verifying the social status of those seeking marriage: virgin, widower, or divorced, without relying on appearances or statements alone.
3. He explains that civil divorce is not considered a church divorce unless it conforms to the conditions of Holy Scripture and is presented to the Ecclesiastical Council.
4. He clarifies the distinction between divorce and annulment, noting that annulment means the marriage was invalid from the beginning.
5. He lists the causes of annulment, such as: an unresolved previous marriage, prohibited kinship, coercion, sexual incapacity, serious diseases, fraud in an essential matter, or insanity prior to marriage.
6. He highlights the danger of material or moral coercion in marriage, since formal consent does not represent true acceptance.
7. He explains that a marriage contradicting the teachings of the Holy Bible cannot be sanctified, because the sacrament cannot be built upon breaking the divine law.
8. He warns priests to take all legal and spiritual precautions, collect documents and declarations, and never compromise the truth for the sake of pleasing people.
9. He emphasizes that true repentance means abandoning sin, not continuing in it while seeking blessing.
10. He concludes by affirming that the priest is a servant of divine truth, not of human desires, and that his peace of conscience and salvation depend on his faithfulness in applying God’s law.

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