Catholics take on Mormonism/Marriage

[dotty415]

I am thinking about converting to the Catholic Church after being Mormon for 5 years. I met someone when I was 15 that was Mormon and after some time I, myself became Mormon. At first everything seemed fine with the Mormon Church, I didn’t realize that there are so many secrets that they keep from you until long after my baptism. I actually ended up marrying a Mormon man in a civil marriage. Eventually, he wanted to get “sealed” in their temple, and that’s about the time that everything went south. We had do jump through so many hoops to prepare for the “sealing”. They actually wouldn’t even let me in that part of the temple until after I had been a member for 1 year. However, eventually we did go to the temple, but after going there and realizing what exactly I was getting myself into, I told him that I could no longer support the Mormon Church. Of course that didn’t go over to well, as he is very devout in his faith. We are now divorced, without any children. I would like to get married again someday, but I know that if I wanted to marry a Catholic person I would have to have that marriage annulled. I have the book “Annulment; The Wedding That Was”, but I was wondering if there was anyone perhaps that had ever been in a similar situation that was able to have such a marriage annulled or the petrine/pauline privilege used. Is it true that the Catholic Church doesn’t even recognize the Mormon faith as being Christian because they don’t use the correct form of Baptism? Thank you for taking time reading this, and for your help!

 

[Jodi]

I cannot answer the ‘marriage’ question, but it is indeed true that Mormon baptisms are not accepted by the Catholic Church as being valid christian baptisms. If the mormon baptism is the only one you have ever had, then you would need to be baptised as part of the process of becoming Catholic.

When my family and I left the mormon church to become catholic, my wife (Jodi) and the kiddoes (who were not yet old enough for mormon baptisms) had to be baptised. It was only becasue I had had a previous baptism (as I was a mormon convert) that was valid (though not from a catholic church) that I did not have to be ‘re-baptised’.

Its a little complicated at to the reasons for such, as its not the simple “they don’t follow the Form”, but rather because of the meanings attached to their usage of the Form of Baptism that are the invalidating nature. A little research can provide you with various authoritative explainations for the decision.

-Brendan

 

[AMDGtoo]

Never have been in your situation, but it is true that the Catholic Church does not recognize Mormon baptisms.

I hope you have written a letter to have your name taken off the Mormon rolls. Since you are now have a civil divorce and are thinking about converting, please speak to your Catholic priest about getting a decree of Nullity.

 

[hosemonkey]

Never have been in your situation, but it is true that the Catholic Church does not recognize Mormon baptisms.

I hope you have written a letter to have your name taken off the Mormon rolls. Since you are now have a civil divorce and are thinking about converting, please speak to your Catholic priest about getting a decree of Nullity.

I am no canon lawyer, but I have been through the annulment process. It is entirely possible, that given the fact that your husband was a member of a non-Christian cult, that you may simply need a letter from your parish priest citing “disparity of cult” as grounds for declaring you marriage null and void. You need to talk to him on this however, and get an expert opinion. You may not need to go through the formal annulment process at all. Check it out.