Do I have a duty to my church

[prisjazz]

Hi,

I am anguishing about a decision I made 20 years ago, and I am questioning whether I have a duty to disclose it to my parish priest.

I was married outside of the church. We didn’t tell this to the catholic church we attended. My husband has now passed away. If I disclose this information, will I be excommunicated or prevented from receiving Holy Communion. If so, on what basis?

Thank you most sincerely - I love Jesus and his church. Holy Communion has been my life-sustaining food since I met Jesus 20+ years ago.

 

[lifeisbeautiful]

I would make an appt for guidance and confession with a priest and explain your situation to him. He can help you from there, do not be afraid. We do have the moral obligation to be in a state of grace when receiving the Eucharist.

 

[Chantal25]

I confessed being in mortal since state when i received the Eucharist. All went well. I truly had remorse for doing such a thing to Jesus.

Pray to have remorse, and when you truly feel horrible about this, then go simply to the confession.

You cannot receive communion when you are in a state of mortal sin and refuse to do something about it, but now, all you need to do is to confess. There aren’t any sins that cannot banished with the Holy Blood of Jesus. It is like a drop of water in a huge fire of Mercy, it banished instantly. YOU need to have remorse and sincerely repent. If you don’t feel this way, again pray Mother Mary and God to help you.

Trust God.

p.s Jesus speak through his priest, he knows your heart already. Don’t be afraid and go to him.

 

[SonCatcher]

Hi,

I am anguishing about a decision I made 20 years ago, and I am questioning whether I have a duty to disclose it to my parish priest.

I was married outside of the church. We didn’t tell this to the catholic church we attended. My husband has now passed away. If I disclose this information, will I be excommunicated or prevented from receiving Holy Communion. If so, on what basis?

Thank you most sincerely - I love Jesus and his church. Holy Communion has been my life-sustaining food since I met Jesus 20+ years ago.

No worries. Just bring it to Confession before you return to the Eucharist. It might be a good idea to make an appointment if you think it could be a long confession.

 

[aemcpa]

Hi,

I am anguishing about a decision I made 20 years ago, and I am questioning whether I have a duty to disclose it to my parish priest.

I was married outside of the church. We didn’t tell this to the catholic church we attended. My husband has now passed away. If I disclose this information, will I be excommunicated or prevented from receiving Holy Communion. If so, on what basis?

Thank you most sincerely - I love Jesus and his church. Holy Communion has been my life-sustaining food since I met Jesus 20+ years ago.

You do not need to inform your pastor or anyone else in any public or documented way of your previous marriage, since you are no longer bound by the marriage. Go to confession to any priest immediately and you will - for the first time since you entered your marriage - completely free to receive Holy Communion worthily. While you are obligated to confess the sin of receiving Communion (however many times you did) while living in a marriage not recognized by the Church, there is nothing you need to do as far as changing your current situation. You can simply be absolved in confession and be restored to the state of grace and full communion with the Church.

A major caveat is that if you were aware before now that receiving Communion while living in an invalid marriage is a mortal sin, and you deliberately declined to confess that sin in previous confessions, then your previous absolutions were also invalid. You should bring this up as a possibility in confession, and you might consider making a general confession (i.e. confessing to the best of your ability all the sins of your life) to be certain. You might want to schedule that ahead of time, but any priest worth his salt would be more than happy to accommodate you and work with you to make it as painless as possible.