Church authorities in the United Kingdom have clarified that both canon and civil laws were adhered to for twice-divorced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s wedding at a Catholic cathedral in London.
“All necessary steps were taken, in both church and civil law, and all formalities completed before the wedding. We wish them every happiness,” a spokesperson for Westminster Cathedral told the Sunday Times newspaper.
Johnson, the first UK prime minister to get married while in office in nearly 200 years, exchanged nuptial wows with Carrie Symonds, the mother of his one-year-old son, at a low-profile ceremony on May 29.
“The bride and groom are both parishioners of the Westminster Cathedral parish and baptized Catholic,” the cathedral spokesperson added.
Johnson is the first baptized Catholic to become British prime minister.
Catholic law, which does not recognize divorce, seldom permits the remarriage of those whose former spouse, or spouses, are still alive.
Can anyone explain to me how Boris Johnson, who left the Catholic Church while at Eton and is twice divorced, can be married at Westminster Cathedral?
Johnson divorced his first wife Allegra Mostyn-Owen in 1993 and his second wife Marina Wheeler in November last year.
The wedding had provoked debate among Catholics about how the 56-year-old premier was eligible for a Catholic wedding at the mother church in England and Wales.
Father Mark Drew, a priest attached to the Archdiocese of Liverpool, took to Twitter to question conducting a second marriage in a church.
“Can anyone explain to me how Boris Johnson, who left the Catholic Church while at Eton and is twice divorced, can be married at Westminster Cathedral?” the priest asked.
Johnson, who has served as prime minister since July 2019, was baptized a Catholic at the request of his mother, Charlotte Johnson Wahl.
But he was confirmed in the Church of England under the Anglican Communion while studying at top boarding school Eton College.
“I am seeing so many comments where sincere Catholics are feeling betrayed …,” Father Drew added.
Carrie Symonds, 33, is a Catholic who has affirmed her faith on many public forums including social media.
Father Gary Dench, an assistant priest at Brentwood Cathedral, Essex, said on social media that Johnson remained a Catholic despite his Anglican confirmation.
“As such, Boris Johnson remained bound by ecclesiastical laws in force and which were binding on him as a Catholic when he contracted his previous marriages,” he said.
Johnson’s two earlier marriages did not take place in a Catholic church.
Father Dench, who is studying canon law at Leuven in Belgium, noted that if Catholics do not marry before a “lawful ecclesiastical authority,” or receive a dispensation, then their weddings are considered as invalid under the Code of Canon Law.
According to the papal biographer Austen Ivereigh, Johnson’s previous marriages are unlikely to have been recognized under canon law as his former spouses were not Catholic, nor were the weddings Catholic sacramental ceremonies.
Therefore, a “simple administrative process” would have been enough to declare the earlier marriages invalid, he said.
The couple baptized their son Wilfred at the cathedral on Sept. 12, 2020
Observing that Symonds was marrying for the first time, Father Dench said: “As such, she has a general right to marry and a right to receive the Sacraments. If her spouse is also not prohibited by law, previous relationships notwithstanding, there can be no question of trying arbitrarily to prevent this.”
The rules applied “equally to all Catholics, whatever their wealth or rank,” the priest asserted.
The couple’s association with Westminster Cathedral, which is near 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s official residence, came out in the open last year.
The couple baptized their son Wilfred at the cathedral on Sept. 12, 2020.
Announcing her son’s birth on Instagram, Symonds said he was named Wilfred after Johnson’s grandfather.
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