Posted on 03/30/2019 8:12:59 AM PDT by Salvation
Question: I had reason to hope my niece was going to convert to the Catholic faith. But there were so many obstacles the Church set up that discouraged her. She was asked to go to classes, and they told her that her marriage was not valid and she would need an annulment. Further, it was necessary to wait until Easter, etc. The nearby evangelical church set up no such obstacles, and she was able to join at once and be considered a member. I hear so much talk of evangelization today, but I share my niece’s frustration. Can we not streamline this process?
— Name withheld
Answer: There is a kind of appealing simplicity that you describe in many Protestant denominations. But there are problems with the approach that should give us pause. Ultimately evangelization is more about conversion than mere membership. We are summoned to embrace the saving teaching of the Lord and to walk according to it.
Because adults make informed decisions, the Church considers it important to teach them the fundamentals of the Faith so that they can know what it is they are agreeing to when they enter the Church. Although some of the Scriptures portray an almost instant, on-the-spot baptism, the consensus in the early Church shifted to a lengthy, three-year period of instruction (called the catechumenate) prior to baptism. This likely was because of the insight that quick conversions often led to quick departures or a falling away when the true demands of discipleship became known.
Instructions are most insisted upon for those who are unbaptized. In the case of those who are baptized and come from different Protestant denominations, the length and content of instructions will depend on their background. It is up to the discretion of the pastor who discerns with each individual what is needed. It is certainly not required for those already baptized to “wait until next Easter.”
The concerns about a person’s marital status are rooted in the very words and teachings of Jesus himself. He teaches without ambiguity that for a person to marry, then divorce and enter another marriage, puts them in an ongoing state of adultery in the “new” marriage (cf. Mt 5:32; Mt 19:1-9; Mk 10:11-12; Lk 16:18, etc). He adds rather firmly, “What God has joined together, let no one divide” (Mt 19:9).
It will be further noted that when the Lord was evangelizing the woman at the well, he brought her to a moment of conversion, and she asked for the gift of faith. But the Lord Jesus saw fit to first raise with her the fact that she had been married five times and was now living with a man outside of marriage. Her conversion would not be complete or adequate until she was willing to live chastely. Then the graces could flow.
For reasons of their own, many Protestant denominations have decided to practically overlook such passages. But the Catholic Church takes the Lord’s teaching on these matters rather seriously, as he clearly intended that we should. In some cases, after an investigation based on evidence, the Church may use its power to bind and loose, to indicate that the previous marriage was not “what God has joined,” and it recognizes the first marriage as null. A person’s current marriage then can be blessed and recognized. But we simply cannot set the Lord’s words aside as if they were of little importance.
Thus some conversions to the Catholic faith will take some time to be faithful to the teachings of the Lord and the nature of true conversion. It is worth the diligence required.
Why would you say such a vile untruth about yourself?
I got a girl pregnant at age 18 and both families insisted on a Catholic wedding. Ended up coming down to giving them $5000 then all ok in the Catholic God’s eyes !
Churches do not charge that large of a facility/clean up fee, again, your families may have paid that much for the wedding in total but not to the Church.
Were you at the first Pentecost and know this for a fact?
You’re very observant.
No. I have scripture for a fact. I must have missed the part in acts where the apostles told the crowd they needed 1 to 3 years of catholic instruction and anullmemts of all previous marriages to join the church.
Your links do not prove your point either.
The scope of the molestation of minors by Roman Catholic hierarchy extends around the world and throughout the history of Roman Catholicism.
It is in no way, in any position to be pointing fingers and claiming the moral high ground just because they claim that more other people to it than they, therefore Catholicism isn’t so bad after all.
It’s bad whenever and where ever it happens and for an organization that claims to represent Christ to the world and take the moral high ground and preach to others how they ought to live, is reprehensible.
Roman Catholicism needs to seriously clean up its act before it goes around poking its nose in other people’s business and thinking they have the right to tell others what to do.
When they can clean up the mess they have and show others how it’s done, then they can lead by example.
Until then, trying to downplay the seriousness of misrepresenting Jesus by engaging in and covering up and enabling some of the worst sin known to man to so many millions of people is unworthy of anyone calling themselves a Christian.
Catholics ought to be hanging their heads in shame for what has become of what is supposed to be the body of Christ to the world, instead of arrogantly puffing itself up and deflecting the attention away from itself by pointing out the supposed, alleged failings of others.
That’s because they are less. They are gravely deficient, lacking most of the sacraments,especially the Eucharist. Sounds like wherever your husband went for instruction completely blew it. I hope your husband gives it another look.
That will be a great defense at The Great White Throne Judgment. But God doesn't grade on the curve. All secrets come out there.
Matthew 19:3-9 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?”
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Breaking a marriage bond is breaking a marriage bond despite the semantics involved.
An annulment is the breaking of a marriage bond. Divorce by any other name........
gain posting slanderous untruths.
There have been antipopes in the past and the Church is still here. We will survive.
I have a huge problem with the Catholic Church excusing Catholics voting Democrat because they will overlook the sin of abortion and homosexuality but embrace the sin of coveting the possessions of others and depend on Democrat politicians to steal the wealth from those who earned it and redistribute it to those who don’t. The Catholic Church ignores the Ten Commandments.
The Holy spirit is God, not the servant boy of the priest.
Are you really accusing MomMD of LYING?
It’s a prayer.
??
Do it in percentages then. I could have posted that with the first post.
Again posting slanderous untruths.
God will determine whose salvation is acceptable or not acceptable. There will be a clear division of sheep and goats. He knows the heart.
The very fact that the “pope” is a fraud proves the Catholic Church is accepting a lie. I believe there are saved people in the Catholic Church because the really do believe that Christ died for them but I believe the papacy is anti-Christ as many Catholics look to this fraud of a man to speak for Christ on earth. This is false doctrine. WHY do you need a pope when you have Christ and His Word?
Well I have problems with many Protestant faiths openly supporting abortion and having openly queers and lesbians as pastors. With liberal democrats flocking to church on Sundays to hear the gospel from these heretics “married to other fags”. Catholics no more ignore the 10 Commandments than PROTESTants. You have faithful Catholics and well as faithful protestants. Then you have heretics, irregardless of their faith.
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