I was raised kind of sort of Catholic. I was baptized as an infant, but never did confession or confirmation or communion or any other sacrament. I did go to Catholic schools from first grade to 12th, but wasn’t really part of the church. I currently believe in God, but can’t be considered in any real way to be a Catholic or a Christian.
I say all this by way of background so as to assure you that I’m neither attacking nor speaking out of ignorance, but I believe the Catholic approach to marriage is anachronistic, deeply flawed and borders on being anti-human.
While it is highly desirable in many or most cases to try to save a failing marriage, most particularly when there are children involved, it is short-sighted and perhaps even cruel to punish the parties if the marriage doesn’t work out. There are many valid reasons to dissolve a marriage and in most cases it’s positively none of the church’s business. I believe not only that the divorced should be able to receive communion, but to remarry in the church if they wish. God knows far better what’s in people’s hearts and souls than the church ever could.
Just my $.02.
Thank you for your honest and kind reply.
I respect your life journey. Every one has a right to his or her own.
Let me point out, though, that had you been an observant Catholic Christian all your life, you would know what a sacrament is and why the Catholic teaching on marriage makes lots of sense.
Some - not you - might call such a certainty a product of conditioning and brainwashing due to heavy indoctrination. I would counterargue that once we are imprinted by Divine Love in all its expressions - including marital love - one cannot but desire that such a Love lasts forever, and work diligently toward that end.
Love is not intractable, an ideal to aspire too. No, Love is the norm to which we all must attain and in the final analysis, Love is a Person. I would encourage you to seek for this Love and understanding will follow.
~Theo
Sometimes in Catholic circles they get around that problem by pronouncing an annulment, i.e. the putative marriage never could have been valid. Going into it on a false pretense might be grounds for that.
Sometimes people stay married in marriages of convenience. They get along with one another civilly or live apart by consent, and do not fool around with others. That way they honor the promises they made before God about the institution, while minimizing the aggravation to one another.
One problem in America has been the taking of marriage far too casually and lightly. Our present plague of “gay marriage” is not an aping of holy matrimony, but an aping of a social shell. If marriage had been permitted to stay genuine, it would have killed “gay marriage” by comparison.
The “loose biblical interpretation” in serious evangelical circles (which is not the Roman Catholic policy, but just to remind that there are other kids on the block) is that a believer may let an unbeliever walk away and is then free, or if a partner sexually cheats the other partner has the option to be free. But let’s not kid ourselves that this is not a tragic situation just the same.
** I did go to Catholic schools from first grade to 12th**
How did you manage not going to Confession and Communion. The nuns would have been all over your case.
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