The Church Must Be Clearer on Marriage

These remarks are occasioned by Cdl. Farrell’s recent musings toward, it seems, admitting the Church’s inability to bless the sacramental marriages of same-sex couples but suggesting the possibility of blessing their non-sacramental or civil marriages (?) but, rather than sort through all that, let’s set out some distinctions crucial to discussions of marriage, sacramental and civil, among Catholics and briefly call attention, once again, to a major factor contributing to the Church’s apparent incoherence in this area.