Narrative of Archbishop Cruz's Seminar

Archbishop Oscar Cruz

On March 11, 2011, Archbishop Oscar Cruz gave a talk at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium regarding marriage.  Archbishop Cruz expound on the legal aspects of marriage such as impediments and possible claims for annulment. The different symbolic activities done during the marriage ceremony were also discussed.

Archbishop gave the 12 reasons that can serve as impediments to marriage. The highlights include less than 16 years old, reception of sacred orders and pronouncement of the vow of celibacy and regarding direct and blood relationships.  According to him those under 16 are not yet ready for marriage because of their immaturity, instability and dependence.  They cannot yet commit themselves for a lifetime because there is the presumption that they are not yet mature.  This means that they cannot yet decide something that would affect their whole lives given their lack of maturity and their tendency to change minds.  They would not be able to comprehend fully the gravity of the situation.

Archbishop Cruz at TYA

Second highlight is reception of sacred orders and pronouncement of the vow of celibacy.  According to him, he does not want to see any of us married to a priest or nun.  This is because they have previously vowed to engage in another vocation. But the one he highlighted the most would the marriage between blood relations.  He was very much against this because this produces abnormal children or descendants.  The effect of having joined close blood relations may not be evident in direct descendants, the manifestation could happen even after a couple of generations. His words were, look at an abnormal person; he did not do that to himself.  There is a reason why he turned out that way.  Look at his ascendants and you would find that there are people of close blood relations produced children who were the source the abnormality.

Archbishop Cruz also discussed the wedding ceremony and the symbolisms involved. The symbolism emphasized on was the giving of arrhae and putting of veil.  The arrhae is a symbol of support or material resources.  This is usually given by the husband and accepted by the wife as a sign of temporal assistance.  However, he also mentioned that if the bride is the accepted provider, then she would be the one to give the arrhae and the groom would be the one to accept. The veil, on the other hand, symbolizes one roof, one table, and one bed.

The next highlight of the talk would be the causes for nullity of marriage. A number of reasons were given such as insanity, immaturity, inaptitude, unlearned, mistake about person, deception, simulated marriage and conditional matrimonial consent among others.  However, Archbishop also mentioned a couple of provisions that lawmakers want to include such violence, infidelity and abandonment.  He had an unusual take to it in that what he said that a spouse could just commit these acts if he/ she wants to annul the marriage.