Kennedy wedding: churches' views

4F3MENK'A1 relations between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches may be strained by their differing attitudes towards the marriage of Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy to Mr. Aristotle Onassis, the Greek shipowner, whose earlier marriage was dissolved.
The writer of an article in the Vatican magazine L'Osservatore della Domenica branded her as a "public sinner" and said she was in a "state of spiritual degradation": but two days later Metropolitan Meliton of Chalcedon, Dean of the Ecumenical Patriarchate's Holy Synod, gave the marriage his blessing.
He said the marriage was "canonically valid" and that the partners were regarded
"not as sinners. but as Christian spouses deserving of all due respect."
The canonical letter confirming the dissolution of Mr. Onassis's first marriage, he said, "clearly stated that he was free to come to a second legal and canonical marriage."
In spite of the strong language of the L'Osservatore article, the Vatican is unlikely to condemn Mrs. Onassis as a "public sinner." The article went well beyond the earlier statement of the official Vatican spokesman, Mgr. Fausto Va I lai
He confined himself to saying that Mrs. Onassis was in an "irregular" situation, cut off from the Sacraments so long as the marriage lasted. One Vatican official termed the language in the article, written by the Italian theologian Fr. Gino Concetti, as "pre-Conciliar" in tone.
CARDINAL CUSHING
Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, an old friend of Mrs. Onassis, may have contributed to this impression when he said to her critics: "Why can't she marry whomever she wants to marry?" He stated later that he had not said she was eligible to marry in the Catholic Church.
A high Vatican official said: "Cardinal Cushing made rather an exaggerated statement, no doubt because of his esteem for the family. I would call this inordinate goodness."
Marriage by a Catholic outside the Church, without Church dispensation. was once excommunicable. But Pope Paul abolished this provision in a 1966 reform of marriage laws. The penalty applied to Mrs. Onassis bars her from Catholic Communion, confession and burial, although she may continue to attend Catholic services.