R
rmatti01
Guest
I am a faithful, orthodox Catholic who’d like some help with something. I’m a bit confused about which weddings we can and cannot attend. There are a couple of specific example that I would like to mention.
#1 I have two friends who are getting married. Both were raised Catholic, but are currently searching and do not consider themselves to be Catholic. They do not feel comfortable getting married in the Church and therefore are not. They know how I feel about that.
#2 My sister-in-law is gay. She is dating someone who considers herself to be Catholic and her friend follows everything in the Church except for the teachings on homosexuality. My sister-in-law attends Mass with her friend, but I think she would say that she is still searching for her faith. Now, they know exactly where I stand on the issue of their union. We have a great relationship though.
In both scenarios, as I understand it, the weddings are invalid in the Church’s eyes. Yet, it seems as though I am prohibited from attending #2 and am “allowed” (though not necessarily encouraged) to attend in #1. Am I correct with regard to this? I feel like I would be a better evangelist of the faith if I treat them with kindness and attend their ceremonies than if I do not. I am quite certain that not attending either ceremony would do irreperable harm to our relationships and thus, severely affect any future hope of evangelizing.
I’d appreciate any help on this matter.
#1 I have two friends who are getting married. Both were raised Catholic, but are currently searching and do not consider themselves to be Catholic. They do not feel comfortable getting married in the Church and therefore are not. They know how I feel about that.
#2 My sister-in-law is gay. She is dating someone who considers herself to be Catholic and her friend follows everything in the Church except for the teachings on homosexuality. My sister-in-law attends Mass with her friend, but I think she would say that she is still searching for her faith. Now, they know exactly where I stand on the issue of their union. We have a great relationship though.
In both scenarios, as I understand it, the weddings are invalid in the Church’s eyes. Yet, it seems as though I am prohibited from attending #2 and am “allowed” (though not necessarily encouraged) to attend in #1. Am I correct with regard to this? I feel like I would be a better evangelist of the faith if I treat them with kindness and attend their ceremonies than if I do not. I am quite certain that not attending either ceremony would do irreperable harm to our relationships and thus, severely affect any future hope of evangelizing.
I’d appreciate any help on this matter.
). It took us 7 years before we actually had our marriage blessed in the Church. We were going to do it earlier but felt uneasy about returning stateside pregnant and getting blessed in the Church! Then other children, moving, etc. came about. During this time we considered ourselves married and the blessing just an “extra” - that God understood our marriage circumstances.