Can a pregnant woman who married a divorced man receive Sacraments during pregnancy?

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Alma

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I know a Catholic woman who married a divorced man (a civil marriage only), and therefore had to stop receiving the Sacraments (Confession, Communion, etc).

Now she is two months pregnant and was adviced, for medical reasons, not to have sexual relationships with her husband during the rest of the pregnancy.
She wants to know if she can go to Confession and receive Communion again during this time and also receive the Sacrament for the Sick when the time to give birth comes, since she and her husband will be living in chastity 7 months and the Church allows married couples who live this way to receive this Sacraments.

I told her she could do so only if she intends to keep on living in chastity after her baby is born, otherwise it would be like cheating God for 7 months.

What do you think?

Alma
 
Personally, I think I’d leave this question to the priest to answer. It starts getting into very specific, pastoral concerns, that tie into her need for confession and how to proceed from there.

CARose
 
Agreeably…talk to your pastor…and consider asking her spouse during her confinement…if she has a great desire…perhaps he would consider looking into an annulment, so she can always receive the sacraments…Looking for a technicality just doesn’t seem right, especially if she has such a great hunger for the sacraments. In the meantime, pray to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the unborn and pregnant ladies, as well for the intercession of St.Gerard Magella and also St.Gianna Molla…a 20thcentury saint, just canonized in 2004.
 
It sounds like the sin of presumption to me. She is intending to continue in the sin.

Divorce stinks!
 
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Alma:
I know a Catholic woman who married a divorced man (a civil marriage only), and therefore had to stop receiving the Sacraments (Confession, Communion, etc).

Now she is two months pregnant and was adviced, for medical reasons, not to have sexual relationships with her husband during the rest of the pregnancy.
She wants to know if she can go to Confession and receive Communion again during this time and also receive the Sacrament for the Sick when the time to give birth comes,
Alma
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in the first place this is a question she should pose to the priest in confession who will likely tell her yes, one option while she is resolving her marriage situation is to live in continence (chasitity is required for all married couples, continence or abstinence is required for those who cannot lawlfully engage in marital relations). If someone posed the question to me I would state the objective Church teaching and urge them to see their priest for a specific application to their own case. Only he can provide the pastoral care she needs.

As far as anointing of the sick any Catholic who is gravely ill or in proximate danger of death can request it. If there is a situation in her pregnancy that poses such a danger, she should request the sacrament now and not wait. In any case, she needs to be in dialogue with her priest about all the aspects of her family and her life.
 
JMJ Theresa:
It sounds like the sin of presumption to me. She is intending to continue in the sin.

Divorce stinks!
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Indeed, I am almost certain that she intends to resume her sexual relationships with her husband as soon as she can.
That is why I told her it did not feel right to try to take advantage of a temporal situation, but I did’n want to seem too rigid.

Any comments about this, please?

:blessyou:
Alma
 
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Alma:
Indeed, I am almost certain that she intends to resume her sexual relationships with her husband as soon as she can.
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what you are almost certain of is immaterial, what this person discusses with the priest in confession is important. We are called upon to impart the teaching and the objective truth about a moral quandary or question but we are not called upon to make judgments about the state of an individual’s soul or the subjective morality of their actions, that is why we have confession. These are matters for confession, between the individual and the priest.
 
I don’t think Christ intended to exclude anyone from the Sacraments.
 
She made a seroius choice when she chose to marry and not to wait and see about the man getting an annulment.

And that leads us to the next question, is he Catholic, is he baptised, has he talked to the priest for advice on an annulment and is it in the process.

If the man is not Catholic, does not beleive what he did was wrong, and this lady knowing all of this married him anyway, she sorta made a choice back then.

But as almost everyone said, it will be an issue only her and her priest can know the true answer of.

I would on the little information that has been given, say no most likely the priest would not, but there is so much more informatoni that is not here no real decision can be made.
 
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ReformedCatholic:
I don’t think Christ intended to exclude anyone from the Sacraments.
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He didn’t. We exclude ourselves. By not doing what He commanded.

“He who eats and drinks unworthily…”
 
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Verity1:
He didn’t. We exclude ourselves. By not doing what He commanded.

“He who eats and drinks unworthily…”
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Perhaps, but sins are forgiven and we are created “in His image” so I’d have a hard time finding too many sincere seekers as “unworthy” or self-excluding. Love one another as I have loved you… to me that means embracing and including those that might not fit our notion of the “ideal,” rather than passing judgement and imposing sanctions.
 
I’m am not a Catholic, so I’m hoping you can explain why this answer isn’t black and white. Assuming the OP is correct in her statement that the lady in question will resume her marital relationship (which the church views as adultery) as soon as she can, then how could she possible receive communion? Doesn’t confession involve repentance? Am I mistaken to believe that repentance involves a true desire to refrain from that sin? If she plans to continue with her sin later, then how can their be true repentance? I don’t understand how there could be any question? Am I misreading 1 Cor 27-32? Just hoping someone could clear this up, since some of the replies were nothing like I expected. (Again, this is from a non-catholic perspective… sorry if I overstepped my bounds)

RyanL’s Wife
 
You’re not overstepping, RyanL’s Wife.

Some of the responses here were distressingly wishy-washy.

Certainly, this is a matter that has to be evaluated by her priest, preferably in the confessional. And as others have said, it isn’t possible for the rest of us, as observers, to discern what is in this woman’s heart.

But objectively, if it is her intention to resume her sinful lifestyle after delivering her baby, then she is not eligible for absolution from the sin of adultery, and she cannot legitimately receive the eucharist.

The further problem, sadly, is that there is a good chance that, even if this woman intends to return to adultery, she will encounter a priest with no spine, who will not tell her the truth – who will allow her to confess her adultery and will grant her absolution, without concerning himself about her future intentions.

At the risk of being unfairly judgemental, I must sat that, in my opinion (and assuming that the OP’s characterization is accurate), it appears as though the woman in question is looking for a loophole – not as though she’s sincerely repenting of her adulterous behavior. If this is true (and it’s just an impression, I know, and may not be fair), it suggests a very cavalier, disrespectful attitude toward the faith in general – which I guess kind of goes together with allowing oneself to be in such a situation in the first place.
 
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ReformedCatholic:
Perhaps, but sins are forgiven and we are created “in His image” so I’d have a hard time finding too many sincere seekers as “unworthy” or self-excluding. Love one another as I have loved you… to me that means embracing and including those that might not fit our notion of the “ideal,” rather than passing judgement and imposing sanctions.
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Sins are indeed forgiven, thank God. BUT, we must recognise they are sins; we must ask for forgiveness; we must sincerely attempt to amend our lives.

None of us fit the ideal. It’s not a question of mere mortals passing judgement. God Himself imposes the sanctions, not us.
He didn’t die the scandalous, humiliating and disgraceful death on the cross as a mere gesture. This horror was the price that God paid to show us the price of sin. Only He could pay it.

Of course He does not consider “sincere seekers” as unworthy. I did not suggest otherwise.
 
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ReformedCatholic:
I don’t think Christ intended to exclude anyone from the Sacraments.
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You’re right, confession is always available with the instruction to sin no more.
 
ReformedCatholic said:
I don’t think Christ intended to exclude anyone from the Sacraments.
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Yes, indeed. Our Lord’s command was to go and make disciples of all nations. However, we must always bear in mind that there is no such thing as an automatic *right *to a sacrament. There are conditions governing the reception of the sacraments and in the case of the pregnant lady mentioned above . . . . .she has excluded herself from the sacraments by virtue of the choices she has made.

So you see, Jesus the Lord wants everyone to be included but some exclude themselves by their actions. After all, I know full well that if I am in a state of serious sin I cannot recieve Holy Communion unless I first confess with a firm and sincere desire to avoid sin in the future.
 
IMHO, if she is not truly repenting of her sin, then I’m not sure how much good the sacrament of reconciliation is going to do her, and she could very well be heaping one sin on top another by profaning the sacrament. A priest is the best guide for her. To me it sounds more like her attempt to game the system, which means she is probably in need of some catechizing right now.

Advise her to seek counsel from a priest.
 
I agree with other posters who said this woman should consult a priest as soon as possible. There are a number of factors which can modify a situation: as far as I know, if her husband was never married in church, his previous civil marriage is no impediment to marrying this woman in church now (if he is Catholic). But then, there are far too many things to consider - and regardless of what we say or think, it will all be decided in her conscience.
 
It depends. If the divorced man got an annulment then it is not a sin and they can both receive the sacraments if both are practicing Catholics. If only one is a practicing Catholic then only that one can receive the sacraments (except for confession). If one is a practicing Catholic and the other is not a Catholic at all then the one who is not a Catholic cannot receive any of the sacraments except for baptism and confirmation and confirmation only if the person is seeking to become a Catholic.
 
Alma said:
Indeed, I am almost certain that she intends to resume her sexual relationships with her husband as soon as she can.
That is why I told her it did not feel right to try to take advantage of a temporal situation, but I did’n want to seem too rigid.

Any comments about this, please?

:blessyou:
Alma
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What you can tell her are the required things to obtain forgiveness of sin. One of these things is a firm amendment not to sin again. If she does not have the intent of refraining from sexual sin with this man, she does not receive the sacrament, no matter what she may wish, and therefore communion is out of the question as well.

Dan
 
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