Is Man really Capable of Giving

Himself entirely
Till Death Do Us Part?1
Inputs from the article: LUOMO DEBOLE E LA CAPACIT PER
AUTODONARSI: QUALE CAPACIT PER IL MATRIMONIO?2
of Giuseppe Versaldi3

DEAN JOHNPAUL D. MENCHAVEZ

1
In partial fulfillment of the requirements in Q371 - La perizia psichiatrica nelle
cause di nullit matrimoniale, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, imparted by Prof.
F. Poterzio.
2
This is an article published in Ius Ecclesiae 2007.3. It was first delivered in the 3rd
Corso di aggiornamento organized by the Faculty of Canon Law at the Pontifical University
of the Holy Cross, 17-21 September 2007. The translations of the quotes are the authors.
3
A current member of the Supreme Tribunal of the Segnatura Apostolica, G. Versaldi
finished his studies of Psychology and Canon Law in the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He was tasked to found the diocesan consultorio familiar, and occupied the directorship and
consequently, the presidentship of the Regional Federation Piemontese of Consultors. He
is currently the Bishop of Alessandria. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guiseppe_Versaldi)

811
W
hat does Mel Gibson, producer-director of The Passion
of the Christ, politicians like the President of France,
Nicolas Sarkozy, and Chiles former President Michelle
Bachelet4 have in common? They are among the worlds
public personalities these days, apparently known for their integrity but
who in their private lives unfortunately have a failed marriage. With
the widespread practice of divorce (the occidental worlds sad state of
successive polygamy) and the infidelity cult, it is not surprising when one
begins to ask whether man is really capable of giving himself entirely
through marriage. A lifetime conjugal relationship seems to be merely an
ideal and unrealistic. On the phenomenological plane, nowadays, cases of
success stories of couples who have lasted, thus passing the test, appear to
be scarce and an exception to the norm.
Christian revelation provides concrete answers. Man, the apex of
Creation is limited but at the same time called to perfection, and through
grace, can be capable for self-donation. The mere fact of his creation is
something good (cf. Gen 1, 31). But, as Christian anthropology clearly
affirms, at the start of the history of humanity, there was a free and
conscious decision on the part of man to go against the project of God
for him, and he sinned. This sin, which is also branded as original, has
damaged, but not totally destroyed, the primary goodness inherent in him.
That damage, also called concupiscence, is the tendency or inclination
against the good, and it coexists with the fact that man remains to be an
image and likeness of God. This defect in human nature is manifested in
mans deficiency in his capacity for love. It brought division between the
first couple. Consequentially, the corruption of that love progressed: the
fratricide of Cain and the practice of polygamy of Lamech (Gen 4,19).
However, despite sin, the love of God for man did not diminish. Benedict
XVI in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est describes this love as eros in the
sense that it is a passion similar to the one between the betrothed, and at
the same time agape since it is gratuitous, merciful and sacrificial. God
Himself, His own Son, His Word, was made flesh to redeem man from his
condition of slavery.
4
The data about the politicians were gathered from a Mercatornet article, entitled
Thanks for supporting family values, but what about the family?, written by Carolyn
Moynihan, posted 15 June 2008.

812 Boletn Eclesistico de Filipnas,Vol. LXXXIX, No. 901 (Nov - Dec 2013)
 Man continues to reflect God in this imagery of love in and through
matrimony. This love is natural for him. The first book of the Bible,
Genesis, leaves us a trace: the fact of Adams dissatisfaction until Eve
was created. The love between man and woman includes both the eros
(instinctive and passionate attraction) and agape (the donation of oneself to
the person loved). The effect of sin, along with the hardness of the heart,
was that it provoked the separation of the eros and the agape. Love tends
to mutate from self-giving to self-confirmation, a personal gratification via
the instrumentalization of another person. Without grace, in and through
Christ, as well as the personal effort to fight against concupiscence, man is
incapable of curing that hardness of heart.
It is but essential for an ecclesiastical jurist-lawyer to review the
aforementioned anthropological principles. Time and again the Roman
Pontiffs have been salient on these points in their annual Speeches to
the Tribunal of the Roman Rota. The juridico-ecclesiastical science is
grounded on them.
Versaldi was right in his affirmation: If talking about the weakness of
human nature is difficult, more so is analyzing it, however, it is inevitable.
It is always, indeed, a balancing act between the weakness of man on one
side, and his vocation to reciprocal love that requires the capacity for self-
giving on the other.
The contribution of Psychology that delves into conjugal love is vital
in the study of this weakness. Along with Christian anthropology, this
and the other human sciences agree that there are three possible and real
human weaknesses:
a. The Moral Weakness that derives from
the natural human condition, wounded by sin,
bothered by concupiscence;
b. The Psychological Weakness, which is not
a mental illness, but a condition of the absence
of sufficient knowledge of the world of ones
emotions that precede and conditions his or her
decisions; this weakness precedes the rational
election and by which the latter depends on,
despite the conscious intent of the person. The

CANON LAW: Is Man really Capable of Giving Himself entirely? 813

 existence of this weakness is far from the psychic
determinism that some theorize. The unconscious
factors do not determine everything in a persons
behavior and its symptoms. Besides, a common
experience is that patients who do not exert effort
to change their behavior, in fact, have room for
free decisions.
c. The Weakness that comes from the influence
of Psycopathology of a person with illness in
various qualitative degrees and that influences
the capacity and freedom.

It is evident, Versaldi writes, that the first does not incapacitate

anyone to contract marriage. If there is correspondence to sacramental
grace, the vocation of the spouses becomes their path to salvation and
their communion can increase and strengthen through time. Neither does
the second. The immature person due to the negative influence of the
unconsciousness of his or her emotions does not lose his/her essential
capacity and freedom in as much as his/her faculties are not disturbed by
a pathology. Evidently, his/her effective freedom to love, giving himself
or herself, is diminished (not completely suppressed).
Who can say that he has the complete power over the use of reason?
Who can say that he does not falter at times in terms of discretion of
judgment? Who can affirm that he or she is flawlessly assuming the
essential obligations of marriage? In the end, although apparently one may
see his or her personal condition in one way or another fit the provision
of canon 1095 of the Code of Canon Law that delineate incapacity, the
conditions are to be interpreted strictu sensu.
The real cases of incapacity are found in the ambit of Psychopathology,
that is, only if through an adequate scientific study, a particular anomaly
is manifested. This anomaly should be grave enough to substantially
impede the necessary capacity for matrimonial consent. In this case, there
is a lack of a basic condition in the person himself who wants to contract
marriage, and the sacramental grace cannot fill in for that absence, an
indication that the person is not called to the vocation of marriage.

814 Boletn Eclesistico de Filipnas,Vol. LXXXIX, No. 901 (Nov - Dec 2013)
 Modern Psychology appears to be optimistic as with regards to the
cure of psychological disturbances. According to Versaldi, the most
serious and prevalent approach is psychodynamic psychiatrytending
towards the diagnosis and therapy characterized by a way of thinking that
recognizes the problem of the unconscious, the absence and the distortion
of the intrapsychic and the internal objective relations. Through the
psychodynamic and structural analysis, one arrives at an evaluation of the
person in his integral complexity, thus giving the judge the possibility to
deduce conclusions in his field of competence through the translation in
canonical categories of the experts completed evaluation.
To conclude, man is, indeed, capable of giving himself in marriage.
This is a principle that should not be doubted. Man needs to be constantly
reminded of a perennial truth about himself: that he is both a sinner, a
weak creature, and at the same time, that he is called to perfection, and his
Creator is on his side to back him up amidst all the personal and collective
trials, difficulties and hardships, if he wills to correspond. On the person-
to-person basis, i.e., whether this man is capable of marrying, the question
inevitably is on the psychological plane, that is, the experts are necessary.
The Church laws, well-based on the natural law, confirm with their
restrictive tendency: the real cases of incapacity are found in the ambit
of Psychopathology, that is, only if through an adequate scientific study, a
particular anomaly is manifested. This anomaly should be grave enough to
substantially impede the necessary capacity for matrimonial consent.n

Rev. Fr. Dean Johnpaul D. Menchavez, JCD defended

his Doctoral Dissertation in Canon Law in the Pontificia
Universit della Santa Croce in Rome, entitled Marriage
in Philippine Civil Law: Holding on to the Truth about
Indissolubility last December 2012. He was ordained
priest in 2012 and is incardinated in the Prelature of
Opus Dei and the Holy Cross. He also holds a degree
in Bachelor of Sacred Theology from the University
of Navarre (Spain), Master of Science in Industrial
Economics, and Bachelor of Arts in Humanities-Liberal
Arts from the University of Asia and the Pacific. He has been a Marist student, a
bank trainee, a university professor and secretary, and a freelance journalist.

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