Last week a bishop offered the faithful some timely reassurance. Bishop Steven Lopes leads the American branch of the ordinariate – a group within the Catholic Church mostly composed of former Anglicans, which preserves much of Anglican liturgy and spirituality. Bishop Lopes’s document, A Pledged Troth, comes amid the chaos and controversy dogging Amoris Laetitia. It is full of wise words, so I was pleased that his British counterpart, Mgr Newton, also sent the document to his clergy.
Bishop Lopes stresses that the marriage service expresses a deep, exclusive loyalty and lifelong faithfulness. He reminds us that the marriage covenant is, by its very nature, perpetual and exclusive. He goes on, quoting the Catechism: “No one, not even the Church herself, has power to contravene this disposition of divine wisdom.”
