I have no idea whether this has anything to do with the TAC and the Apostolic Constitution, but it looks suspiciously so.
MOTU PROPRIO: VARIATIONS TO THE CODE OF CANON LAW
VATICAN CITY, 15 DEC 2009 (VIS) – Made public today was Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, "Omnium in mentem". The document is dated 26 October 2009 and contains two variations to the Code of Canon Law (CIC), variations which have long been the object of study by dicasteries of the Roman Curia and by national episcopal conferences.
The document published today contains five articles modifying canons 1008, 1009, 1086, 1117 and 1124. According to an explanatory note by Archbishop Francesco Coccopalmerio, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, these variations "concern two separate questions: adapting the text of the canons that define the ministerial function of deacons to the relative text in the Catechism of the Catholic church (1581), and suppressing a subordinate clause in three canons concerning marriage, which experience has shown to be inappropriate".
The variation to the text of canon 1008 will now limit itself to affirming that "those who receive the Sacrament of Orders are destined to serve the People of God with a new and specific title", while canon 1009 "will be given an additional third paragraph in which it is specified that the minister constituted into the Order of the episcopate or the priesthood receives the mission and power to act in the person of Christ the Head, while deacons receive the faculty to serve the People of God in the diaconates of the liturgy, of the Word and of charity".
Archbishop Coccopalmerio's note then goes on to explain that the other changes contained in the Motu Proprio all concern the elimination of the clause "actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica" contained in canons 1086 para. 1, 1117 and 1124. This clause, "following much study, was held to be unnecessary and inappropriate", he writes.
"From the time the Code of Canon Law came into effect in the year 1983 until the moment of the coming into effect of this Motu Proprio, Catholics who had abandoned the Catholic Church by means of a formal act were not obliged to follow the canonical form of celebration for the validity of marriage (canon 1117), nor were they bound by the impediment concerning marriage to the non-baptised (canon 1086 para. 1), nor did they suffer the prohibition on marrying non-Catholic Christians (canon 1124). The abovementioned clause contained in these three canons represented an exception … to another more general norm of ecclesiastical legislation according to which all those baptised in the Catholic Church or received into her are bound to observe ecclesiastical laws (canon 11).
"With the coming into effect of the new Motu Proprio", Archbishop Coccopalmerio adds, "canon 11 of the Code of Canon Law reacquires its full force as concerns the contents of the canons thus modified, even in cases were there has been a formal abandonment. Hence, in order to regularise any unions that may have been made in the non-observance of these rules it will be necessary to have recourse, if possible, to the ordinary means Canon Law offers for such cases: dispensation from the impediment, sanation, etc".
MP/OMNIUM IN MENTEM/COCCOPALMERIO VIS 091215 (520)
Be sure to follow our Moderator at Eccentric Bliss, his personal blog!
I can think of one class of people who would likely be affected by the change to canons regarding marriage as it affects persons who formally defected from the faith: individuals who previously left the Catholic Church and were ordained as non-Catholic clergy. Any marriages these people entered into during their defection would beforehand have been presumed valid, but now will be presumed invalid.
Here is an explanation by a canonist who commented on Fr. Z's blog:
Actually, Chironomo, it opens a new hole and makes things easier for apostate Catholics who want to return after a divorce.
Previously, Catholics who formally defected could marry someone and it would be valid with just the same minimal conditions that apply to any non-Catholic baptized person getting married.
Now, even if you formally defect, it still won’t be valid unless you cross all the t’s and dot the i’s of Canon Law’s conditions for validity, just like if you were still Catholic.
So basically, it makes it easier for Catholics who left the Church, got married, got divorced, and now are coming back to the Church…to have that marriage declared invalid by Defect of Form.
Previously they wouldnt have been bound by the canonical requirements and so would have had to go through the “long process” Annulment if they had defected.
Now, it’s basically saying marriages of defected Catholics will be usually invalid (unless their spouse is Catholic and gets a dispensation or something like that, of course) until they return to the Church.
So marriages outside the Church by anyone who was ever Catholic even for a minute…are invalid, basically. Which makes it easier for them to deal with them when and if they return to the Church. If they want to persist in that marriage, they can simply have it convalidated. But if it ended in divorce before that…the process will now be much easier for them to annul it by defect of form.
It's not retroactive. So the law as it stood from 1983 to when this motu proprio goes into effect would still apply to marriages contracted during that time.
I don't see at all how it applies to the TAC. This concerns fallen away Catholics.
I would agree with you. It is not retroactive. It only concerns future situations.
Therefore it is an entirely different matter even from that of "difficult cases" for some of the TAC clergy. It is not connected with the Apostolic Constitution.
Fr. Anthony
Bonj mon Père
J'ai une question au lieu de donner un commentaire. Les conséquences pratiques du Motu proprio Omnium in Mentem sur le statut canonique des "ex catholique" et sur l'oecuménisme.