Can you remarry if spouse dies or is it moral?

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Chuck1

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Hi sorry if this is in the wrong place ,anyway I was wondering if a spouse dies and your a widower/widow are you free to remarry or is it moral becuase Ethel Kennedy didn’t remarry and she said it was also becuase her religion ?
What do you think , thanks
 
In the Latin Church, it is okay. The next marriage is Sacramental.

If you are Eastern Catholic, the view on marriage is different. Marriage is seen as eternal, you can get married again in the church but its viewed more as “economy” and not Sacramental as the first.
 
A marriage, according to the Church, ends with the death of one or another spouse, so yes, of course.

I don’t know what Ethel Kennedy was talking about… never heard that statement.
 
…til death do us part…
The vows end when one dies.

Exception? Permanent deacon - they make a vow to the church to not re-marry. But, I think that only applies to the guy, not his wife.
 
in_servitude said:
Exception? Permanent deacon - they make a vow to the church to not re-marry. But, I think that only applies to the guy, not his wife.
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Generally speaking, it is not only deacons; it is anyone the has received Holy Orders. There are some priests that are married, due to conversion. It is my understanding that deacons may be granted dispensation under certain circumstances so that they can remarry. The wife dying while the children are very young is the oft cited example.
 
ConstantineTG said:
In the Latin Church, it is okay. The next marriage is Sacramental.

If you are Eastern Catholic, the view on marriage is different. Marriage is seen as eternal, you can get married again in the church but its viewed more as “economy” and not Sacramental as the first.
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What a bummer.

Imagine you marry young and your wife dies in an accident before you have any children.

After a few years, you marry again, and have children, with all the pressures that brings, and whoops, too bad for you, no sacramental graces are available to help you out.
 
ConstantineTG said:
If you are Eastern Catholic, the view on marriage is different. Marriage is seen as eternal, you can get married again in the church but its viewed more as “economy” and not Sacramental as the first.
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I hadn’t heard that but am curious to learn more. Do you have any references?
 
Chuck1 said:
Hi sorry if this is in the wrong place ,anyway I was wondering if a spouse dies and your a widower/widow are you free to remarry or is it moral…
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In the Roman Catholic Church, yes, widows and widowers certainly can re-marry. Both my mother and my grandfather re-married in the Church after their spouses died.
Chuck1 said:
…because Ethel Kennedy didn’t remarry and she said it was also becuase her religion ?
What do you think , thanks
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🤷

Luna
 
I would not look at the words of those in the Kennedy family as Church teaching. Go with the catechism. They are just people, not Church hierarchy or anything.

In fact, some of their examples were dirt poor examples of how to be a good catholic.

It’d be like asking “Bob the random guy on the street” and taking his answer to be golden.
 
I beleive, that even if you spouse dies, you should remain true to Gods love, by staying single, but I beleive, that you can have friends,so you won,t be sad, but you should wait for awhile afther burying the one you lost,to show respect,then you can make frinds with someone else.
 
johnthebaptist1 said:
I beleive, that even if you spouse dies, you should remain true to Gods love, by staying single, but I beleive, that you can have friends,so you won,t be sad, but you should wait for awhile afther burying the one you lost,to show respect,then you can make frinds with someone else.
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What do you mean have “friends”? Do you mean date women, but don’t get into relationships?
 
Leon_Bloy said:
I don’t know what Ethel Kennedy was talking about… never heard that statement.
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Luna_Lovecraft said:
🤷
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DihydrogenOxide said:
I would not look at the words of those in the Kennedy family as Church teaching. Go with the catechism.
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No, Ethel Kennedy was right; the traditional teaching is that it is better to remain a widow than to remarry. This comes from 1 Cor. 7:8: “But I say to the unmarried, and to the widows: It is good for them if they so continue, even as I.” It is also reflected, on more general lines, in the solemn declaration of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV, Can. X): “If any one saith, that the marriage state is to be placed above the state of virginity, or of celibacy, and that it is not better and more blessed to remain in virginity, or in celibacy, than to be united in matrimony; let him be anathema.”
 
If/When I marry, it will be for eternity. I couldn’t imagine loving someone and then falling out of love and wanting to marry someone else.
 
The answer to the question is that widows and widowers are free to remarry. They have no moral or canonical impediment.

It has NEVER been a teaching of the Catholic Church that widowed people must remain in that state. While St. Paul does speak to it, he is not expressing a preference for the widowed state over the married state. The citation is being taken out context. St. Paul makes that statement in the context of the doctrine on celibacy. He is saying that the celibate state is a higher calling than the married state. THIS is a doctrine of the Catholic Church and has always been a doctrine.

In addition, no one can marry forever or for eternity.

First: The form of the marriage vows specifically says, “UNTIL DEATH do us part.” The marriage covenant is fulfilled at the moment that one partner dies.

Second: Christ himself says that in heaven we are not given to each other in marriage. The Sacrament of Marriage is not meant to be eternal, unlike the Sacrament of Holy Orders, which specifically includes the word, FOREVER, in the form.

From a psychological perspective, one does not cease to love the spouse who died. However, that love does not negate the possibility of finding another person whom one loves just as much and with whom one can enter into the marriage covenant. Love is not limited. On the contrary, true love is expansive. It is naturally designed to include more and more people along the way at varying degrees.

If that is what one feels, then there is a problem, because one is isolating oneself from the possibility of expanding in love. Such isolation is not healthy, because it’s not natural to the human condition. Man was created to love, not to put boundaries on love. There is a difference between appropriate expressions of love and putting restrictions on love.

Fraternally,

Br. JR, OSF 🙂
 
Leon_Bloy said:
A marriage, according to the Church, ends with the death of one or another spouse, so yes, of course.
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Provided that you don’t marry a divorced person whose (ex-)spouse is still alive, unless that marriage has been annulled.
 
JReducation said:
It has NEVER been a teaching of the Catholic Church that widowed people must remain in that state. While St. Paul does speak to it, he is not expressing a preference for the widowed state over the married state. The citation is being taken out context. St. Paul makes that statement in the context of the doctrine on celibacy. He is saying that the celibate state is a higher calling than the married state. THIS is a doctrine of the Catholic Church and has always been a doctrine.
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I’m not sure what you see as out of context, Brother. He quite clearly expresses that unmarried widowhood is better than remarriage (which, again, is subsumed under the more general doctrine that celibacy is above marriage), and expresses the same, even more clearly, later in the same chapter:
A woman is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband die, she is at liberty: let her marry to whom she will; only in the Lord. But more blessed shall she be, if she so remain, according to my counsel; and I think that I also have the spirit of God. (1 Cor. 7:39-40)
 
JReducation said:
First: The form of the marriage vows specifically says, “UNTIL DEATH do us part.” The marriage covenant is fulfilled at the moment that one partner dies.
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Our mortal death? I mean, couldn’t it mean beyond that?

What are the Eastern Rites vows like?
 
Agape11 said:
Our mortal death? I mean, couldn’t it mean beyond that?

What are the Eastern Rites vows like?
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There are no vows, at least not among those Eastern Churches of the Byzantine tradition. Furthermore, in the Eastern tradition, it is the case that the traditional view is that the marital is bond is eternal. Traditionally, second and third marriages ceremonies do not involve the crowing ceremony and are celebrated, because they were traditionally seen as an accommodation to human weakness.
 
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