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Pope Francis greets the pilgrims during his weekly general audience in St Peter's square at the Vatican on January 15, 2014.Giulio Napolitano / Shutterstock.com

In a largely ignored comment on his return flight from Manila last week Pope Francis told Catholic couples, “It’s true that openness to life is a condition for the sacrament of matrimony.”  The pope added, “A man cannot give the sacrament to the woman, and the woman cannot give it to him, if they are not in accord on this point of openness to life.”

Moreover the pope noted that a marriage was celebrated with the intention of not being open to life, it is null.  “If it can be proved that he or she married with the intention of not being Catholic (on this point) then the matrimony is null,” he said.

The full transcript of Pope Francis' remarks is available here.