Posted on 02/05/2010 6:16:58 AM PST by marshmallow
Newt Gingrich, who converted to Catholicism last year, plans to share his conversion story with business executives at a Catholic conference in California this weekend.
The former Speaker of the House has participated in various Catholic forums recently, fueling speculation that began with his conversion in March that he intended to develop a base of support within the Catholic Church for a run for president in 2012.
The conference, in Dana Point, Cal., is being held by Legatus, a group of Catholic business executives. The group is honoring former President George W. Bush, who is to receive the group’s Cardinal John J. O’Connor Pro-Life Award.
Mr. Gingrich’s presentation is to include a showing of his new movie, “Nine Days that Changed the World,” about Pope John Paul II’s pilgrimage to Poland in 1979. The movie was backed by Citizens United, which financed the anti-Hillary Clinton film that led to the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums in political campaigns.
(Excerpt) Read more at thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Must be Notre Dame style Catholics. What is New going to talk about? His serial divorces?
The article states he will be discussing his “conversion story”.
Unless all Newt’s previous marriages were performed by judges, which the church doesn’t recognize, I don’t see how he could have become Catholic.
Legatus is anything but Notre Dame style Catholics. It is a VERY conservative group consisting of leaders within various places. It is a group that does not get a lot of attention, but one with very deep convictions and pockets.
hey Newt...put this in your cue cards....the Church takes a very dim view of serial wife dumping......
“Unless all Newt’s previous marriages were performed by judges, which the church doesn’t recognize, I don’t see how he could have become Catholic.”
Mr. Gingrich's first marriage was to one of his high school teachers, a woman some years older than him. He married at age 19.
He divorced his first wife and then married another woman.
Because the first marriage would have still been presumed valid at the time of the second marriage, from a Catholic perspective, he wasn't free to marry and thus the second marriage was on the face sacramentally invalid, no matter who married them or where.
The first marriage, I'm guessing, was eventually ruled sacramentally invalid for reasons concerning the psychology of a 19 year-old man marrying a 26 year-old former teacher.
To provide a little more insight, I found this on the web:
(source: http://marriage.about.com/od/politics/a/gingrichn_2.htm )
How Jackie and Newt Met:
Newt met Jackie when he was in high school when Jackie was his geometry teacher. Newt and Jackie secretly dated until their wedding.
Wedding Date:
Jackie and Newt were married on June 19, 1962 while Newt was still in college. Newt was 19 years old and Jackie was 26 years old when they married. Newt's family boycotted the wedding because they thought Jackie was too old for him.
“Gingrich had a crush on his high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, and vowed to his high school friends that he would marry her. He made good on his intentions. He was a teenage student at Emory University in Atlanta, where Battley had taken a college teaching position, when he married her.”
Source: Monica M. Ekman. “Ten Things You Didn't Know About Newt Gingrich.” USNews.com. 2/23/2007.
Gail Sheehy: “One of his first independent acts was to escape the totalitarian regime of his stepfather's home. He chose a path that women have used for generations: he made a jailbreak marriage, attaching himself at the tender age of 19 to his high-school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley — a buxom blonde seven years his senior.”
Source: Gail Sheehy. “The Inner Quest of Newt Gingrich.” Vanity Fair. 9/1995. Pbs.org.
It would be unsurprising if a tribunal granted an annulment (at least in the United States) with circumstances like this.
sitetest
From a different page of the same article:
In May 2002, Newt asked the Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta for an annulment based on the fact that Marianne [second wife] was reportedly previously married.
Please. Some of the recent “conversions” include Newt and Tony Bliar. Blair destroyed England and went full out to Islamify and allow illegals from the third world to flood in. The only good recent and famous conversion I am aware of is Larry Kudlow. Newt is a serial adulterer and RINO. Not as bad as John Edwards but a creepy RINO.
All this was taken care of before he married wife #3; it wasn't an issue in his conversion.
It is one of those Kennedy style annulment free passes. I am not anti-catholic just do not like liberal Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Sikhs, Muslims (conservative or liberal), atheists or other libs.
No, Jackie had died before he married Callista.
Laura Ingraham comes to mind.
"Is" a serial adulterer? He's currently knocking up another woman?
Perhaps you mean was a serial adulterer?
As for your assertion that his conversion was no good, you're a braver man than I. I have no idea where Newt is on his own spiritual journey and am happy to believe he intends to try and remain on the straight and narrow.
Let's leave Tony Blair out of it for the time being, shall we? He has no bearing on Newt's beliefs or faith.
I’ve seen an occasional reference to the idea that the first Mrs. Gingrich died, but I haven’t ever been able to confirm that. Do you have a source handy?
Thanks,
sitetest
It was in an article on his conversion a couple of months ago, in either Catholic World Report or National Catholic Register.
Okay, thanks! Considering that his second wife was a divorcée, that certainly simplifies the circumstances.
sitetest
PS. These are all FR threads!!
Newt Gingrich on Catholicism and JPII
Why Newt Gingrich Converted to Catholicism
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich Opens Up on Catholic Conversion and Embracing 'Overt Christianity'
Newt Gingrich on his conversion to Catholicism
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich conversion details; plans release of JP2 documentary
The Newt Evangelization: Gingrich to become Catholic
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