Rome, Italy, Jun 16, 2016
(CNA/EWTN News).- Updated June 17, 2016 to include a clarification by the Vatican: Pope Francis approved a revision to the official transcript to say that “a portion” of sacramental marriages are null, instead of “the great majority.”
Pope Francis said Thursday that many sacramental marriages today are not valid, because couples do not enter into them with a proper understanding of permanence and commitment.
While he initially said in unscripted comments that “the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null,” he later approved a revision of these remarks.
When the Vatican released its official transcript of the encounter the following day, they had changed the comment to say that “a portion of our sacramental marriages are null.”
In the Vatican blog “Il sismografo,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi said that this change is a revision approved by the Pope himself.
“When they touch on subjects of a certain importance, the revised text is always submitted to the Pope himself,” Fr. Lombardi said. “This is what happened in this case, so the published text was expressly approved by the Pope.”
Proverbs 29:20 tells us, "Do you see someone hasty in speech? There is more hope for a fool!" Francis had to revise his asinine comment. There is a pattern here, and a disturbing one at that, as John-Henry Westen has so ably demonstrated (see here).
And faithful Catholics are rightly concerned. For a spirit of confusion and chaos has infected Rome.
