ŚLĄSKIE STUDIA HISTORYCZNO-TEOLOGICZNE

Indissolubilitas… quae ratione sacramenti peculiarem obtinet firmitatem (can. 1056). Remarks About Indissolubility – The Sacrament of Marriage. Summary
This paper is based on the following statement of Pope Benedict XVI taken from his address to the Roman Rota on the Indissolubility of Marriage (29 January 2010): “...existential, person-centered and relational consideration of the conjugal union can never be at the expense of indissolubility, an essential property which, in Christian marriage, obtains, with unity, a special firmness by reason of the sacrament (cf. CIC, can. 1056)”. The essential message of Pope Benedict XVI can be expressed in this way: In our days the rule of indissolubility of marriage, rooted in the mystery of Creation and Redemption, is obscured and distorted. This fact creates the urgent need for deeper reflection on the relationship between indissolubility and sacrament. More precisely, having in mind renewed anthropology, it is necessary to find an answer to the question: How to understand firmitas? – the key category of the canonical norm quoted by the Pope. The magisterium of Pope Benedict XVI, especially his speeches to the Roman Rota (2006-2010), allows for the formulation of a thesis on the genetic foundation of the sacramental dimension of marriage in the “lifelong” character of union between man and woman. Consequently, the indissolubility (essential quality of marriage) – seen in a personal and historical perspective of consortium totius vitae – appears as an institutional expression of the power of the bond of the “covenant of conjugal love”.

Marital Love and its Significance in Postconciliar Canon Law: A Few Reflections on Polish Canon Doctrine. Abstract
The article undertakes the topic of marital love and its significance in postconciliar canon law. There are some canonists who maintain that this kind of love (or the lack of it) flows into the legal validity of canonical marriage. The article focuses in principle on Polish doctrine of the subject.
After outlining the basic ideas of the Second Vatican Council on conjugal love, the author of the article moves to an analysis of the writings of Polish canonists and theologians. Among them, he enumerates and analyses the texts of Z. Grocholewski, W. Góralski, J. Laskowski, T. Pawluk, E. Sztafrowski, K. Wojtyła, M. Żurawski.
It seems that diverse opinions about the influence of marital love on the validity of canonical marriage flow from the differences in understanding of love itself, what produces the different valuation of the mentioned influence. In general terms, the impact of love on canon law formulations is greater in authors who underline the element of will in love. To the contrary, authors who underline the less precise emotional side of love are not willing to attribute to it greater juridical meaning and, consequently, its possible impact on the validity of marriage.