Boris and Carrie married?

[DonkeysNotDisney]

Anyone else seen the news?? Another baby on the way, relationship on the rocks, or good old fashioned age gap love?

No, it’s bollocks.

If it's not true, then why did the church allow this?

@ellyeth

If it's not true, then why did the church allow this?

There are plenty of catholics (including priests) asking the same question all over Twitter & even in the daily mail

I bet he’s been allowed to annul both previous marriages - the first lasting six years and the second 27! - on the grounds that, having been baptised Catholic, he didn’t seek permission from the bishop to marry in a non-Catholic ceremony the first and second time around.

(I’m so bloody furious over this that I checked canon law!).

If so, it is the epitome of weaselling around the rules. For the benefit of the non-Catholics on the thread, or the posters who think that reading a newspaper story makes them experts on Catholicism, very few Catholics who want to marry in a C of E church, or in a civil ceremony, seek permission from the bishop to do so. I think that our bishop would fall off his throne in shock if anyone asked him!

If this is what has happened, I will think even less of the new Mr and Mrs Johnson, which isn’t difficult, and I’ll be asking serious questions about why the Catholic doctrine of not recognising divorce can so easily be put aside for what is, let’s face it, a crap argument for an annulment based on a technicality. Forgot to ask the bishop for permission to marry in a C of E church or a register office? Hey presto, 33 years of marriage to two separate women magically disappear!

The hierarchy of the catholic church in the UK no doubt are keen to have a "Catholic" PM for the first time so canon law was used to brush aside his previous marriages. Any other Catholic who asked for this would be given the brush off.

If Boris was a women. He wouldn’t get elected and wouldn’t be allowed to marry is lover in a Catholic Church (after his marital journey) without getting some serious backlash from the papers.

Things have got to change. What world are we living in when the equality of men/women are so unbalanced. We’re supposed to be in the great 2021 for goodness sake.

OMG in that wedding photo BoJo looks like Cazza's grandfather.
A pair of grifters indeed.

Jeremy Corbyn has been married three times as well - I think his third wife is a practising Catholic.

Oh well, at least he's not a lying twunt though.

Any other Catholic who asked for this would be given the brush off.

I agree

Iamthewombat

The Catholic Church agreeing to this ‘weaselling around the rules’ is what irritates me the most.

Is Corbyn a Catholic who appears to have had a coach and horses driven through the rules for himself then? If it matters so much to the Johnson fan club, I think they should be able to tell us why Corbyn's behaviour set a precedent.

A lot of Catholic priests are going to find it very difficult in the next couple of years to explain to couples why they aren't allowed to have a Church wedding.

@CricketsBats

Apparently these the theological acrobatics it took for him to get married in a Catholic Church. The church is a disgrace. Marry divorced people of bloody don't.

Yeah, absolute hypocrites

For those who think any other Catholic would not have been treated the same you may be right as the local priest may well have sent anyone in his situation packing. However if they pursued the case they would have got what they wanted in that the previous marriages would be invalid it is a matter of cannon law and even if the hierarchy were to disapprove of Boris and Carys behaviour they could not stop him from having the previous marriages named as invalid on a technicality. I am far more interested in seeing him leave Downing Street that worrying about his private life.

Mrs Johnson. So much for feminism

Oh I suspect her much vaunted feminism goes about as deep as her much vaunted "green" creds whilst consuming at industrial levels or her soul searching Catholicism whilst shagging a married man.

Looking forward to the insta feed, the coffee table book and the media luvvy career real soon now.

'Oh I suspect her much vaunted feminism goes about as deep as her much vaunted "green" creds whilst consuming at industrial levels or her soul searching Catholicism whilst shagging a married man. Looking forward to the insta feed, the coffee table book and the media luvvy career real soon now.'

Ugh. What a load of bile filled nastiness.

@Sweetslumber

Iamthewombat

The Catholic Church agreeing to this ‘weaselling around the rules’ is what irritates me the most.

Exactly @Sweetslumber @Iamthewombat - thank you for your informative post @Bravesoul - thanks for your reply to my post about my particular circs. Whilst clearly not in the Boris sphere (and important only to me) it seems that my STBEH is also a man to whom the truth about previous weddings is a moveable feast. Gah.

her soul searching Catholicism whilst shagging a married man.

Yes, exactly this. She had her baby before Boris Johnson was divorced from Marina Wheeler. Yes, this happens all the time and each to their own etc., but the people doing it are usually not making a public song and dance about their Catholic faith and finding ways to engineer two dodgy annulments with the collusion of a catholic priest!

Agree entirely with your post @Iamthewombat

Re this bit:
I’ll be furious if they have been allowed a full Catholic wedding ceremony, and if so I’ll be writing to Cardinal Nichols to find out (1) exactly what grounds they based the permission on and (2) why it’s one rule for a wealthy woman, who is not a practising Catholic, marrying a twice-divorced adulterer and another for normal women, who are practising Catholics, marrying a divorced man

It looked like the Cathedral announced it as a marriage, not a blessing. I suspect they will be getting a lot of mail on this subject.

Which would be quite an own goal for the Catholic Church. I won’t be the only Catholic watching this story with interest

Massive own goal. I've been hearing the RC media pundits tying themselves in knots over this and the ways in which it is theoretically possible to marry (including the fallacy that non RC marriages are not real marriages).

The reality on the ground is that many thousands of parishioners in the country are barred from marrying again or marrying divorced partners despite having far less of a past than this pair.

I have at least one friend who having fled an abusive drunk of a DH with her DC with nothing, wanted an annulment not to remarry but for her it was part of getting him out of her life. Her own priest was supportive, she had strong grounds but the costs were out of reach for her and the process was awful.

Even the cathedral's own website acknowledges its easier to get an annulment/remarriage if you have influence.

@Bravesoul

For those who think any other Catholic would not have been treated the same you may be right as the local priest may well have sent anyone in his situation packing. However if they pursued the case they would have got what they wanted in that the previous marriages would be invalid it is a matter of cannon law and even if the hierarchy were to disapprove of Boris and Carys behaviour they could not stop him from having the previous marriages named as invalid on a technicality. I am far more interested in seeing him leave Downing Street that worrying about his private life.

I’m afraid that you are incorrect. Rules and laws are subject to interpretation and any request for an annulment has to be judged, usually by a bishop. They can refuse permission.

So yes, ‘they’ (the Catholic Church) could easily have ‘stopped him from having the previous marriages named as invalid’.

Unless you are an expert on ‘cannon (sic) law’ and know better?

but the people doing it are usually not making a public song and dance about their Catholic faith and finding ways to engineer two dodgy annulments with the collusion of a catholic priest!

Yes this is what sticks in peoples throats - its the rank hypocrisy of it. Do what you want but don't then pretend to be some kind of latter day St Francis.

why it’s one rule for a wealthy woman, who is not a practising Catholic

Carrie Symonds is described as a practising Catholic in the Times today.

My dad's second marriage was in a Catholic church. His marriage to my mum was anulled on the basis that she was a confirmed (as a child) Catholic who chose not to marry in a Catholic church. Had neither of them been Catholic previously it could not have been anulled. I believe Boris was also a "lapsed" Catholic so same situation applies.

I know all this because my dad took pains to explain it to me, that his was a technicality that allowed his wife the wedding she wanted and that his marriage to my mum had been real. I doubt Johnson gave any thought to his children's feelings.

'A practicing Catholic'? Quite a lot more work required to reach an acceptable standard then.

We’re still practicing Catholics because we’re not very good at it. I rather think the Johnsons require even more practice than us.

Carrie Symonds is described as a practising Catholic in the Times today.

The thing is, it’s quite a stretch for somebody knowingly and openly committing what the church considers a pretty serious sin (ie committing adultery with a married man and having a child with him) to describe themselves, in all seriousness, as a practising Catholic.

Of course we are all imperfect, but why does this woman get the special concessions when other Catholic women, who have behaved better than Carrie Symonds, seeking to marry divorced men do not?