Posted on 06/20/2014 6:23:47 AM PDT by Weiss White
Q: My daughter stopped practicing her faith and was married to a protestant in his church. Now she has come back, and her protestant husband is preparing to become a Catholic too, next Easter. They understand that their marriage isn’t valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church, but the parish priest told them he can just “bless their marriage” and it will be all right. Can that possibly be true? –Eamon
(Excerpt) Read more at canonlawmadeeasy.com ...
Living by “Bible alone?” “faith alone?”
That way of believing has been proven false since those words were added by Luther to the original Bible.
Sola Scriptura is a false doctrine.
ping for later
I have sincere, simple questions. That you cannot answer even one is disheartening.
I shall seek out someone less prideful.
Your post seems to suggest that there can be no valid Catholic marriage unless both parties are Catholic. This is not true. As long as the couple receive proper instruction and formation, as long as the proper dispensations are in order, and as long as the couple promise to live in accordance with Catholic teaching, be open to children, and raise their children as Catholics, a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian may be validly, sacramentally married in the Catholic Church.
As well, there are no such things as "remarriage licenses." For couples looking to have their previously-invalid marriage made valid by the Church, if the couple have been legally married, as recognized by the civil authorities, there is nothing to be done at the civil level regarding their marriage. Civil marriage is a different matter from a valid, sacramental marriage.
sitetest
re>My wife’s annulment was $500. I think you talked to the wrong tribunal.
I was in a certain diocese and they make the rules. Maybe it got cheaper after 1976 but I find that unlikely.
ummm hmmm. Sounds more like a mob movie. I sure you join another diocese and tried again right? I mean if it was truly due to the corruption you perceived surely you could have found a non-corrupt one, right?
Hmm hmm.
My remarriage license issued by the state of NJ would beg to differ. You could see you are incorrect with a basic google search.
http://www.state.nj.us/health/vital/marriage_apply.shtml
Look at the last paragraph on that page.
As I noted in my post, while this isn’t required technically by the Catholic church, in my experience the majority of monseigneurs in NJ press this preference to do the remarriage secular paperwork as part of your sacrament. I’ve no idea why.
Nope. Got married by a local magistrate. They were right I couldn’t afford to be Catholic. Jesus was not pleased with the merchants using his church.
Took two years and cost $500. She showed me the receipts.
She would have gotten it sooner but the other party ignored all requests to provide his version of the relationship. She predicted this in her letter to the Church. They were both Catholic when they married and they were married in the Church, then he refused to go to Mass with her. Never going the first time. She had many letters from family and friends, attesting to her version of the marriage.
Take you garbage Catholic bashing elsewhere man. Your story is ridiculous and even if we take you at your dubious word, if you really cared to be Catholic you would have done as I said and joined a different diocese that wasn’t corrupt in your eyes. Your point is so laughably ridiculous it isn’t even funny. My Catholic marriage cost me nothing, nada, zip zero. I willingly donated $200 bucks after the ceremony that’s it.
What about FreeRepublic would make you think people on here would buy the garbage your pushing?
Why do you choose to pimp only this particular blog? That’s all you’ve done since joining last year - post excerpts from this blog, and pop in to defend your choice to excerpt this blog. That’s all you do, pimp blogs (well, one blog, anyway), and nothing else? No contribution to the discussions? No commenting on other threads? Just blog pimping?
Right, of course he should have. But he isn’t telling the truth and making up a ridiculous story to simply Catholic bash.
He’s just like a liberal MSNBC anchor.
So, you mean Jews? I’m sure most of them followed the Jewish wedding tradition.
I learn something new everyday.
I amend what I said, then:
In 48 of 50 states, as well, there are no such things as “remarriage licenses,” or at least, as far as a state-by-state Internet search reveals (Texas also has a provision for “remarriage” to someone to whom you're currently married, although this seems aimed, at least in part, toward making public previously “secret” marriages.).
I will, however, reiterate my first point:
A marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic Christian can be valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church. It isn't necessary for both parties to be Catholic.
As well, when people talk about having their marriages “blessed” in the Catholic Church, they may be talking about either sanation of the marriage, or convalidation of the marriage, which aren't quite the same as the initial reception of the sacrament of marriage, in that, as I understand it, the validation of the marriage through these processes is retroactively effective to the date of the original putative marriage.
sitetest
Hi Sitetest,
Noted, I learn new things everyday too. On your first point my knowledge of these specifics is at its limits, so I won’t pretend to offer any more helpful information on what distinctions are made within a blessing. I’m just simply asserting that it is not the sacrament of marriage. For me, it was important to marry someone that could make that sacrament with me in the Catholic church. Thus, I was looking for confirmed Catholics only, or someone who was willing to go through the conversion process fully.
I was lucky the girl I married had a step-father who had her baptized at 5 and then supported her mother and her through communion and confirmation later (and her mother who converted from Lutheran), which later in her life made that possible for us! Her original father was a non-practicing Anglican.
Much has changed since 1976.
The move toward easier and less expensive processes got going in the 1970s, and by mid-decade, was in full swing in many places, but not uniformly so. I remember there were dioceses as late as the 1990s where it was still very difficult to obtain a decree of nullity. I can't speak to costs in 1976, but certainly by the early 1980s, the process, itself, generally cost less than $1000.
I did a survey of dioceses in the US recently and found none that charged much more than a thousand dollars today, most under $1000, many only around $500. And all offered financial help to those in need.
But that's for the Church's process. It's like court costs in a civil court. For annulments that are relatively straightforward, total costs may only be in the range of $500 or $1000. But in a difficult case, or one where one of the parties is uncooperative, costs of private canon lawyers, investigators, costs to obtain required records, can significantly increase the total cost of the process. With these costs, the Church isn't going to help, and I'm not sure why the Church would help. In a civil court, the government doesn't pay each party's lawyers, either.
More importantly, though, is that attitudes, especially among clergy, have changed regarding the process of obtaining a declaration of nullity. Where once it was very much frowned upon, and the likelihood of an invalid marriage in any particular case was thought to be tiny, today, some priests often seem to see annulment almost as chiefly a pastoral aid, rather than as an objective process to determine the original validity of a marriage.
Also, many Catholic laity have come to see annulment as sort of a “loophole” in the prohibition against divorce and remarriage. I've known folks who were really quite upset with the Church for not rubber-stamping their requests for annulments, resenting that the Church would, even denying that the Church had the right to, investigate the putative marriage to come to a conclusion of whether or not the marriage was initially valid.
I think that certainly by the 1970s, the Church was unwittingly performing a lot of weddings that actually did result in invalid marriages. People didn't receive proper formation, by that point, many had mental reservations about having children, about raising their children Catholic, about fidelity, etc. It was good that the Church loosened the discipline associated with the process. But I also think that at times, in some places, some dioceses perhaps may have started handing out declarations of nullity like “get out of jail free” cards.
I'm sorry that you experienced what you experienced way back in 1976. The Church is administered by human beings, and there is no doctrine of impeccability.
sitetest
There isn't even a marriage ceremony in the NT...All this stuff is made up...
Bondage...God won't recognize your marriage unless some guy wearing a long robe (which God condemns) whom they call Father (which God condemns) performs their man made wedding ceremony...Unbiblical bondage to an unbiblical religion...
Jesus did not bless a marriage anywhere...You made that up...
Consummating a marriage does not require God's help...
“...any more helpful information on what distinctions are made within a blessing. I’m just simply asserting that it is not the sacrament of marriage.”
Where folks say their marriage was “blessed,” and the underlying meaning is convalidation or sanation, the actual blessing - that is, the convalidation or the sanation - is not, itself, the sacrament of marriage. That's true. But that's because the sacrament has already been conferred, if not validly. The “blessing” is the thing that makes the sacrament between the two people valid.
People whose marriages have been so blessed do have, indeed, valid Catholic sacramental marriages. The anniversary date of their valid marriage is the date of the original ceremony that was subsequently blessed.
“Thus, I was looking for confirmed Catholics only, or someone who was willing to go through the conversion process fully.”
Although I personally advocate that practicing Catholics marry other practicing Catholics ONLY, it isn't a requirement for a truly Catholic, truly valid, sacramental marriage. I am personally happy to know that my older son is dating seriously a beautiful young lady who has agreed to be received into the Catholic Church before they marry. Thus, I affirm your wish to marry another practicing Catholic. It's just that a marriage can still be sacramental, valid, and Catholic with a non-Catholic party.
sitetest
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