The Newt Evangelization: Gingrich to become Catholic

Deacon's Bench ^ | March 3, 2009 | Deacon Greg Kandra

[NYer]

Buried deep inside this long and wonkish profile of Newt Gingrich in Sunday's New York Times, was this little nugget that, I suspect, went largely unnoticed:

At a moment when the role of religious fundamentalism in the party is a central question for reformers, Gingrich, rather than making any kind of case for a new enlightenment, has in fact gone to great lengths to placate Christian conservatives. The family-values crowd has never completely embraced Newt, probably because he has been married three times, most recently to a former Hill staff member, Callista Bisek. In 2006, though, Gingrich wrote a book called “Rediscovering God in America” — part of a new canon of work he has done reaffirming the role of religion in public life. The following year, he went on radio with the evangelical minister James Dobson to apologize for having been unfaithful to his second wife. (A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich said he will soon convert to Catholicism, his wife’s faith.)

PHOTO: by Nigel Parry for the New York Times.

[PzLdr]

He wasn’t married in a Roman Catholic Church, so the sacrament wasn’t violated.

[annalex]

We should pray for his continuing conversion and for him being able to order his private life accordingly.

He is a brilliant man.

[Jacquerie]

It is said that facts are stubborn things. I add that they are reserved for those who think. Try it someday.

http://www.house.gov/house/Contract/CONTRACT.html

Newt won the House. He did it with real beliefs.

[verga]

He wasn’t married in a Roman Catholic Church, so the sacrament wasn’t violated.

Actually it also depends on the denomination and whther there had been a valid baptism performed.

[nickcarraway]

How many of those were accomplished?

[annalex]

This is completely wrong. Gingrich has a very real problem with his several marriages, despite them being contracted, presumably, not in a Catholic church (Roman or otherwise).

The Catholic Church presumes every apparent marriage to be sacramentally valid. In order to proclaim a marriage invalid, a civil divorce is not enough: a defect should be found in how the putative marriage was contracted. But for a Protestant to marry in a Baptist or any other church, or by a civil ceremony is not a defect. He may have a great difficulty annuling either former marriage, and regularizing the present one.

It is in fact the opposite: if a Catholic (Roman, Melkite, Maronite, or what have you) contracts a marriage outside of the Catholic Church without a dispensation from his bishop, that already invalidates it. Not so when no party is Catholic, then the marriage is harder to invalidate because there is no canonical form for non-Catholics.

[Unam Sanctam]

Remember St. Augustine had “personal” issues as well, but he made a wonderful addition to the Church.

[NCC-1701]

My wife works at the local diocesan office and works in the tribunal office that handles annulments and the like. What you wrote sounds a lot of what she has told me from time to time. She’s a Roman Catholic convert herself and loves being one.

[Jacquerie]

My response was to the comment: it seems to me that the man never had a real beliefs; and I thought he did.

Please pay attention.

[Augustinian monk]

He should have provided a better photo. He looks like Hannibal Lector in is cell.

[BibChr]

Amen

And 1 John 2:19.

[Mr. Lucky]

Which brings us back to the question: how does he get around the little inconvenience of marriage being a Sacrament?

[big'ol_freeper]

My wife and me were at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception several years ago and as we were walking through the cafeteria we recognized a voice...it was Newt in all his glory.

This is no surprise to me.

[Miles the Slasher]

This is completely wrong. Gingrich has a very real problem with his several marriages, despite them being contracted, presumably, not in a Catholic church (Roman or otherwise)...

The marriages do pose a problem, but without knowing the baptismal status of his former spouses; it is possible he could apply for a Pauline or Petrine privilege, and then marry within the church.

[Petronski]

Amazing how some of the Baptists think Gingrich belonged to them. LOL

[Philo-Junius]

It’s not just a question of baptismal status. If it can be documented that the marriages were not entered into with full consent (most Protestant marriages, upon inspection, prove to be deficient in some sense, because the participants almost always have mental reservations knowing they have recourse to divorce) then they can be annulled and his current marriage can be regularised.

[Global2010]

Salvation is a good source to answer that one.

When I went back to my Catholic Faith I had to work for a year in study and take a test on what I was taught.

Also Confession was a must do before being confirmed and I had some serious sins to be absolved from my youth.

[Global2010]

Perturbate?

[MSF BU]

General Abrams, John Wayne, Robert Bork, Tony Blair, Clarence Thomas...just one more in a long line...

[annalex]

I agee that it is a very real question. We don’t know how is he going to “get around” that.

He may give up on trying to legitimize his current civil marriage, separate from the civil spouse and become celibate.

Or

He may succeed in annuling both prior marriages, and if his present civil spouse had any on her own, she might likewise succeed annuling those, at which time they are free to regularize their civil marriage as Catholics.

It is a standing joke how, supposedly, annulments are granted to prominent people easily. No one really knows since the proceedings are private. However, given the present serial marriage, easy divorce and plentiful contraception, the fact is that very many marriages are on shaky sacramental ground. Lack of committment to a lifelong, mutually faithful, oriented to parenthood marriage is not that uncommon; quick trial marriages that end barely after they are consummated are also frequent. Imagine that one spouse insisted on contraception and left no offspring; imagine the other spouse had been previously married for whole one month right out of high school, and bingo, both marriages are invalid, one for lack of fruitfullness, another by impediment of prior bond.