Can a priest consul you to commit a sin that prevents you from receiving the sacraments?

[doubting_farmer]

a friend of mine was married catholic then divorced and without an anullment married again in a protestent church, she recently came back to the faith and went thru the annulment process and received her annulment. however her current husband from the 2nd marriage refuses to have their marriage blessed in the church, she, out of fear of having her husband leave her is still having maritial relations with him without their marriage being blessed, she is respecting the church by not receiving the sacraments, several priests have told her it was ok for her to do this! Can a priest consule someone to commit a sin that prevents them from recieving the sacraments? I was under the understanding that the church teaches that you cannot committ an evil to bring about a perceived good. i fear she is getting bad advice from the priests, i have confided to her my concerns and she says her spiritial director and 2 other priests concur in her actions!what should i do? I am praying for her, and the priests!

 

[PhilotheaZ]

What these priests have (supposedly) told her does not sound right to me. Perhaps she misunderstood them; or perhaps (unfortunately) they were telling her what she wanted to hear. There is another possible remedy for her situation. Please share this link with her: catholic.com/thisrock/1995/9504qq.asp

 

[doubting_farmer]

THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU
your reply and the radical sanation explaination should really help her! I have struggled with this question for many months thank-you so much for responding!
God Bless you,

 

[Fergal]

As far as I know, domestic peace also comes largely into the equation and what you have detailed above is a indeed difficult situation. I must firstly commend her for refraining from reception of the sacraments. A most noble course of action in this present situation. Her love for the Lord will certainly not go unnoticed nor will it go unrewarded.
You know we all do some things that we would not ordinarily do when we are away from the Lord and think that what we do is no concern of His. We have all lived our moments of relativism and have all allowed it to dictate to us irrespective of whether we have left that Faith or not.

There is always Hope. Never despair. In these days good, sound advice is difficult to come by and so she may need to seek out wise counsel on the matter.

I would suggest that she seek guidance of this one from the local ordinary, the Bishop of her Diocese who has the power to ‘heal’ the marriage with the intent of the lady alone. Her husband does not need to be involved in this seeking of counsel since the impediment relates to her.

Again all of this is as far as I know. So do all the research you can for her and help her along always in a manner of hope and of joy and of Peace. Tell her the Lord loves her, that He understands her situation and awaits its correction with infinite patience. All will be healed.

I have always found that Opus Dei priests are very knowledgeable on these issues and will certainly point her in the right direction if there are any about the place.

A friend of mine was married by an SSPX priest (again when the dictatorship of relativism prevailed in his life), and now has discovered that he needs to have his marriage sanatised. Impediments to the marriage can be healed.

 

[Andreas_Hofer]

As far as I know, domestic peace also comes largely into the equation and what you have detailed above is a indeed difficult situation. I must firstly commend her for refraining from reception of the sacraments. A most noble course of action in this present situation. Her love for the Lord will certainly not go unnoticed nor will it go unrewarded.

Domestic peace does make the situation more difficult on the woman, and, indeed, she should at least be commended for the integrity of refraining from receiving the Eucharist - but neither of those actually makes it right to have marital relations with someone to whom one is not married. If that is, in fact, the advice given by the priests, then it was gravely scandalous advice. If take a more detached view of the “domestic peace” angle we will also find that, if the facts presented in the OP are corrected, it is very odd to speak of trying to maintain the peace of a household not actually bound together by marriage. There is no “domus” there to pacify.