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.
Scripturally, there is no such thing as an invalid marriage.
You cannot support that one at all from the Bible that Catholics claim they gave the world.
Also, Catholics have told us that divorce isn’t the real issue, but it’s the remarriage that is the problem, so even Catholicism doesn’t have any more of a problem with divorce than Protestantism.
When your priests start living the moral purity your organization demands of everyone else, then they can get back to us about moral purity.
Annulment is church sanctioned divorce.
The only $5K fee for a wedding I’ve ever heard of was when my nephew, like his parents, wanted to be married at the National Cathedral in DC @ 20 years ago. No idea what the cost is now. I suppose the popularity of the venue demands the value/cost.
Most churches anticipate a donation of a few hundred dollars, which is fair given the cost of opening/operating the building. There’s usually a separate stipend for the clergy. If the couple is financially disadvantaged, and want a simple wedding in a small chapel, any fees are typically waived.
I wasn’t alive when the priest scandal began.
It’s been going on for centuries.
Perhaps, more on the grounds of mercy than on canonical grounds.
I would also add that the use of contraception and acceptance of divorce and remarriage as unexceptional end of a marriage are so prevalent that it is easy to construe invalidity of any marriage just on the basis of that.
People re-”married” without the benefit of annulment may and even should come to the Holy Liturgy or participate with devotions public or private. They may not, however, receive the Eucharist.
I’m sure glad I wasn’t around to have to support people like Peter, who followed Christ personally, then denied he ever knew him, or Paul, who persecuted Christians for entertainment, or David who murdered a husband to sleep with his wife, or a million others.
What do you identify as, a hypocrite?
My father was the one who paid the money and said they “suggested” a donation, not a fee or charges for my wedding
You are the one that implied it was a fee for a wedding, supposedly because you got a girl pregnant at 18. I’ll call that a lie.
No joke, it’s obvious to everyone here except the trolls. I can’t think of a time you or I were on protestant threads attacking them.
The sacrament of reconciliation did not die for you.
The sacrament of reconciliation did not shed its holy blood for you.
The sacrament of reconciliation was not the sacrificial Lamb of God bearing ALL of God’s wrath, condemnation and judgment for ALL of your sins on the cross so that you could be completely forgiven and justified from all things.
Christ and Christ alone did all of those things and only through him are you saved and justified forever. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” 1 Timothy 2:5.
Some ritual your or some church made up can NEVER save you or anyone else. Adding anything to Christ for your salvation is heresy and false doctrine and twice cursed (Galatians 1:8-9).
You can find NOTHING in the New Covenant of the Bible that says the sacrament of reconciliation can save you. You are steeped in false doctrine.
The Word of God says that regardless of what your church says, if you’ve received the person of Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are saved. If not, you are lost.
Easy has nothing to do with it. Annulments are not intended to be easy or hard. The difference between annulment and divorce is that a divorce is the couple ending the marriage. Everyone agrees the marriage existed and now they want to end it. An annulment is accepting that the marriage never really existed because at least one of the participants did not understand the marriage vows or did not intend to live up to them from the beginning. Therefore the marriage was never a marriage. The church agrees to marry everyone who it believes will take their vows seriously. At least they will do it once. And if they can prove there are grounds for an annulment, they will do it twice. Otherwise the person can get married outside of the church. Divorce is mentioned in all four gospels. And in all four gospels it is clearly forbidden.
Every baby baptised at my Catholic church is completely naked and dunked three times in the baptismal font. And it is not three months. I’m not sure why I am even defending myself to you.
“People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.”
Then quit doing it.
Lapsed Catholics are the worst Catholic bashers. Constant running down others to justify walking away walking away from Christ in the Eucharist.
Devout Catholics don’t turn their back on Jesus Christ. Disbelievers do.
Try being happy in whatever faith you claim to have without your snide remarks about Catholics who actually practice their faith.
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