The Sunday Mail
COUPLES married under customary law are still excluded from participating in the Roman Catholic Church’s holy sacraments as submissions by the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference to have such unions recognised at the Synod of Bishops failed to sail. ZCBC, represented by Bishop Xavier Johnsai Munyongani of Gweru, is now hoping to have the submissions reviewed at the Synod of Bishops set for next month at The Vatican.
Set for October 4-25, the synod — presided over by Pope Francis — will focus on The Vocation and Mission of the Family in the Church and the Contemporary World.
There are seven sacraments in the Catholic Church: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders and matrimony.
Baptism is the first and fundamental sacrament and gate to other sacraments, while confirmation is conferred usually by a bishop through anointing with chrism and laying on of hands.
The Eucharist renders present the body and blood of Christ for communion and sanctification of believers so that they become Christ-like.
With penance, the faithful receive pardon through God’s mercy for sins committed while the sacrament of anointing heals and strengthens the faithful who are afflicted by illness.
Holy orders is the sacrament by which bishops, priests and deacons are ordained and receive the power and grace to perform their sacred duties.
But, couples who have not wedded in church are still not allowed take part in these sacraments according to ZCBC secretary-general, Father Fradereck Chiromba.
“Failure to marry in church means that many Catholics who were baptised and received communion as youths fail to receive the Eucharist in their adult life, a time when they probably need the sacrament most.
“It is important for the Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops’ Conference to highlight this predicament at the forthcoming Synod of Bishops on the Family. Attending to customarily married couples would be in the true spirit of ‘Save Our Families’ the title of a pastoral letter issued by the ZCBC in 1991,” Fr Chiromba said.
Last year’s synod focused on problems facing the family today; including the effects of war, immigration, domestic violence, polygamy, inter-religious marriages, cohabitation, break down of marriage, divorce and remarriage.
Fr Chiromba said customary unions posed a challenge even for purposes of inculturation due to their processes, which are not clearly defined.
“Inculturation, a word not found in most dictionaries, is a term used to explain the insertion of the faith in a particular culture. The question therefore is can the Church recognise customary marriage among the baptised as a Christian marriage in the same way that the early Church recognised marriages among the baptised as Christian?
“The challenge we have is that the traditional customary marriage process makes it difficult to define the point of marriage. That is the process of paying lobola to the point when they have adequately fulfilled all the requirements and can be pronounced husband and wife.
“So this in itself poses a challenge as to what stage such a marriage gets to be recognised. So those with such marriages have to continue on the peripheries for now,” Fr Chiromba said.
He said church guilds were also not accessible to people in customary unions.
“Catholics who are in irregular marriages participate fully in the life of the Church but do not receive Holy communion. They go to Church, tithe if they wish but cannot receive the Eucharist until they are married in Church.
“They may not also join some Church guilds like the legion of Mary or that of St Joseph which require proof of Church marriage. Nevertheless the guilds do accept widows and widowers.
“One who is only married customarily has not yet received the sacramental marriage of the Church and is not normally expected to be appointed to any position of leadership in the Church, like Parish Councils, etc, but yes they are welcome to participate in Church programmes.”
Fr Chiromba said many Catholics had a wrong perception of what a church wedding was, hence they opted for customary and civil unions alone.
“A church wedding seems to remain the third option as people go for the customary and civil marriage first. This is because people think having a huge gathering of people and celebrations in a church wedding is a necessity.
“What is required for a Church wedding is the official witness of the church, who is the Priest, the couple and their two witnesses. Only five people are necessary for a canonical wedding and this can be conducted at a quiet evening mass and the couple go back home,” Fr Chiromba said.
Bishop Munyongani will be part of more than 360 participants from around the world at the October synod.
