Because most people today do not understand that sacramental marriage really is a bond that binds them to each other for life, many marriages today can be considered invalid, Pope Francis said on June 16. “We are living in a culture of the provisional,” he told participants in the Diocese of Rome’s annual pastoral conference. The idea of commitments being temporary “occurs everywhere, even in priestly and religious life,” he said. Pope Francis told the story of a bishop who said a university graduate came to him saying he wanted to be a priest, but only for 10 years. That lack of true commitment is part of the reason, he said, that “many sacramental marriages are null. They say ‘Yes, for my whole life,’ but they do not know what they are saying because they have a different culture.”

This article appears in July 4-11 2016.