Replies

I am not a Roman Catholic, however I know many who have left the RC church. Divorce and adultery are biggies for them and have always been curious how the Gingrich's managed to get their marriage blessed. Have they ever said?

It's kind of long, but interesting, I think, so I'll give it a shot. With regard to marriage, the Catholic Church teaches the following:

For a Christian, marriage is a sacrament. It cannot be undone except by death. While it is possible to get a legal divorce, the Church still views the couple as sacramentally married until one of the spouses dies.
Civil marriage has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not a sacramental marriage has been validly entered.
The marriages of non-Catholic Christians are presumed to be valid sacramental marriages.
You can be sacramentally married to only one person at a time. And since a sacramental marriage lasts until death, that means you can only enter a second sacramental marriage after the death of your spouse.
There are certain conditions that are required for a marriage to be considered sacramentally valid. Those conditions include (but are not limited to) the following: 1) the firm intention to be sexually faithful to your spouse as long as you both live; 2) the willingness (but not necessarily the positive intention) to have children, should God send them to you; and 3) the mature understanding that marriage is a lifelong commitment. If any of these conditions is missing (and there are others, but these are the relevant ones for this discussion), then the marriage is not valid.
A marriage is presumed to be valid unless it is convincingly demonstrated otherwise in a Church court. An example of a case where it could be demonstrated to be invalid would be if one spouse engaged in sexual intercourse with another party within a very short time after the marriage ceremony. There can be other very convincing evidence that the conditions for a valid marriage were not met.
A Catholic can appeal to the Church for a declaration of nullity, which is an official declaration that the marriage they had presumed to be valid was, in fact, not valid at all, and had never been valid. This is commonly called an annulment. If the Church is convinced by the evidence submitted that one or more of the essential elements of a valid sacramental marriage was missing AT THE TIME OF THE WEDDING CEREMONY, then the annulment can be granted and both parties are free to enter a valid sacramental marriage with someone else.
If you commit adultery, that does not end a sacramental marriage just as it does not end a civil marriage. If, at the time of the ceremony, both parties intended to be sexually faithful for life, then a later choice to commit adultery does not invalidate the marriage.
If, while validly married in the eyes of the Church, you enter a civil marriage with someone else, the Church does not recognize the civil marriage as valid. You are still married to your first spouse until one of you dies.
If, while living in a second civil marriage while still sacramentally married to someone else, and your sacramental spouse dies, your new civil marriage does not automatically become a valid sacramental marriage. You are still living in sin until you enter a new sacramental marriage.

Applying these considerations to the Gingrich case, we see that his second civil marriage was never a valid sacramental marriage. There are many reasons this is true, including both the fact that he was still sacramentally married to his first wife, Jackie. His adulterous relationship Marianne did not invalidate that marriage. When Jackie died, he was considered not to be sacramentally married anymore, since his new civil marriage to Marianne has no sacramental effect. When he started his affair with Callista, he was still legally married to Marianne (but not sacramentally). He later civilly divorced Marianne and entered his third civil marriage to Callista.

When Newt converted to Catholicism, the whole issue of his marital relationships had to be cleared up in the eyes of the Church. Since Jackie had died, there was no question that he was not married to her anymore. However, he had entered a civil marriage with Marianne. While the existence of a civil marriage has no sacramental effect, there is, nevertheless, an obligation to clarify one's marital status when entering the Church. There would have had to be an official declaration that his purported marriage to Marianne was not sacramental, and that therefore, he was free to enter into a sacramental marriage with Callista. Newt would not have been received into the Catholic Church if he was not willing to either stop living with Callista, or to enter a sacramental marriage with her. So when he converted, he also sacramentally married Callista.

Thus, it's not that his civil marriage was blessed. Rather, it is that he entered a sacramental marriage with her either before or immediately after he was received into the Church.

I need to make clear that the Church is not "looking the other way" with regard to Newt's repeated infidelities. And this is not some sort of loophole. On the contrary, the Church simply presumes the sincerity of all those who repent of their sins and wish to convert. And since sexual activity outside a sacramental marriage is prohibited by Christ, a sincere person in Newt's position who wants to enter the Church would have to sacramentally marry the person with whom they are living, or to separate from them. Newt and Callista chose to marry.

Another point is that the Church condemns Callista's behavior before their sacramental marriage, too. But presumably they both have had a conversion of heart. Let's hope so, anyway.