G
Grtonia
Guest
Here comes a long one!
I was raised Methodist and married in that church in 1971. I obtained a civil divorce in 1981. In 1983 I met a wonderful lady who is a divorced Catholic. After viewing her love for God, I said that I needed some of that and converted to Catholicism in 1984. We wanted to get married. I met with the priest at the church we were attending and he told us to go ahead and get a civil marriage and he would help us get her anullment. Well to make a long story short, we got the civil marriage and he kept putting us off regarding the anullment. I finally went to a different priest in a different parish. He got us on the road to the anullment for my wife. The anullment was granted and she recieved authorization to marry within the church. The priest told me that since I was married before being a Catholic, I didn’t need to do anything. He blessed our marriage in December 1986.
Since listening to CAtholic Answers, I have began to question the validity of our marriage. I contacted one of the priests at our current parish. He confirmed my suspicians that we do NOT have a valid marriage as the Church recognizes my Methodist marriage.
We have chosen to continue to live together, but as brother and sister until this situation is resolved. I have an appointment with the priest this afternoon. to move this forward and get it resolved. My requests are:
A. Please pray for us
B. Does anyone else have experience like this
C. Besides prayer, any advice. ( I am not poo pooing prayer! We are doing plenty of that.
Oh and also, the priest said that since we thought we had a valid marriage, there should be no guilt for what I guess would be an adulterous relationship. (Now that we know, we are abstaining and sleeping in seperate bedrooms.) My wife however is having a tough time, as she considers that she has been comitting adultery for almost 20 years! I have tried to explain culpability and knowlege, but she isn’t really buying into it.
PHEW
THANX!
I was raised Methodist and married in that church in 1971. I obtained a civil divorce in 1981. In 1983 I met a wonderful lady who is a divorced Catholic. After viewing her love for God, I said that I needed some of that and converted to Catholicism in 1984. We wanted to get married. I met with the priest at the church we were attending and he told us to go ahead and get a civil marriage and he would help us get her anullment. Well to make a long story short, we got the civil marriage and he kept putting us off regarding the anullment. I finally went to a different priest in a different parish. He got us on the road to the anullment for my wife. The anullment was granted and she recieved authorization to marry within the church. The priest told me that since I was married before being a Catholic, I didn’t need to do anything. He blessed our marriage in December 1986.
Since listening to CAtholic Answers, I have began to question the validity of our marriage. I contacted one of the priests at our current parish. He confirmed my suspicians that we do NOT have a valid marriage as the Church recognizes my Methodist marriage.
We have chosen to continue to live together, but as brother and sister until this situation is resolved. I have an appointment with the priest this afternoon. to move this forward and get it resolved. My requests are:
A. Please pray for us
B. Does anyone else have experience like this
C. Besides prayer, any advice. ( I am not poo pooing prayer! We are doing plenty of that.
Oh and also, the priest said that since we thought we had a valid marriage, there should be no guilt for what I guess would be an adulterous relationship. (Now that we know, we are abstaining and sleeping in seperate bedrooms.) My wife however is having a tough time, as she considers that she has been comitting adultery for almost 20 years! I have tried to explain culpability and knowlege, but she isn’t really buying into it.
PHEW
THANX!