Marriage performed by child abuser

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AnonEMouse

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My wedding was performed by a priest who abused my ex-wife as a child. He is also her brother, and along with her father abused my ex-wife and her other siblings. This priest is now a monsignor in charge of taking abuse complaints for his dioscese, and the abuse has been covered up by the family.

Does the church say anything about marriages performed by child abusers?
 
Is that supposed to be an answer?

And yes I am familiar with both Latin and the expression.

I assume you mean to say that the marriage is valid because the sacrament is valid because the behavior of the priest act of the sacrament. I am wondering, however, if the church has ever said anything on the subject of abusive priests performing weddings for victims.
 
Since you already know the answer to the question of the validity of sacraments administered by the most depravedly sinful priests, what other statement would you expect from the Church on this subject?
 
I don’t have a particular expectation, which is why I asked.

You seem hostile; I find that odd.
 
The man presumably is, and was at the time of your marriage, a validly ordained priest; otherwise he wouldn’t be a monsignor and placed in a diocesan position. Marriages and other sacraments he performed are therefore valid, regardless of what alleged bad acts he may (according to whoever you got this story from, presumably your ex-wife) have committed.

Sorry if that’s not the answer you were hoping to get, but the reality is that a validly ordained, non-laicized priest being a child abuser or a mass murderer or anything else doesn’t have any effect on the sacraments he performs, including marriage. It also doesn’t sound like it’s been proved in any way that this priest actually did the things of which you accuse him.
 
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Frankly, I find the question a bit strange. Should you not call or write the Bishop in the affected Diocese?
 
I wasn’t hoping for any answer, and I thank you for yours.

I’m wondering, I suppose, of if this sort of thing has come up in annulments before; there is much more to this case, as there is to any annulment. So, for example, the evil prior actions of the priest may not deminish the sacrament, but it certainly could set conditions that lead to a justified annulment. If a priest had a gun to the bride’s head, it wouldn’t invalidate the priest’s sacramental ability, but it would mean that the bride was not entering into the sacrament with full consent of the will. This is especially true as the sacrament of marriage is not, unliked the others, administered technically by the priest, but by the bride and groom.

I’m not asking a theological or doctrinal question.
 
AnonEMouse said:
You seem hostile; I find that odd.
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I, too, find that answer oddly hostile. You and your family are dealing with something incredibly difficult. I think it deserves more than a few words of Latin to deal with it adequately.

To answer the original question, as you know, and as others have said, the fact of a priest being a sex offender does not in itself invalidate the sacraments that he administers. However, if you are seeking an annulment, it is possible that the abuse that your wife suffered would be relevant. Of course, you would want to bring up this subject as sensitively as possible. The fact that she allowed her brother to perform the wedding ceremony suggests that she had not even begun to deal with her experiences yet.

I would urge you and your former wife to bring this information to the relevant authorities, i.e. the police in the jurisdiction in which the crimes took place and the diocese in which your former brother-in-law now works. He and his father should be prosecuted for what they did, and it is important to ensure that they are not able to abuse more children.
 
I have written to both the effected dioscese and the church where the wedding was performed.

The effected dioscese, as I said, is run with the priest in question as essentially second in command (Vicar General of Clergy) and he takes the child abuse claims, so dead end there. The church where the wedding was performed advised me to begin the annulment procedure with my current home dioscese, which I am in the process of doing; I am posing this question in determining how to include this information in what I submit.

I suppose in the end it doesn’t matter so much what the priest did, but rather that my ex was often waking up in the middle of the night having terrified flashbacks to her abuse and later having to check into a mental institution. The cause of her torment, in the end, may be irrelvent.

But I do want to be thorough as I’m writing up the report for the annulment as I take the matter–and the sacraments in general–quite seriously.
 
It is far beyond the statute of limitations in the state where the abuse occurred, and I don’t have evidence of ongoing abuse on new victims that is not circumstantial.

It is old abuse that has been successfully covered up in this case.
 
If your ex-wife was somehow coerced into marrying you by her family, and didn’t freely choose to marry you, then that might possibly affect the validity of the marriage.

If you are asking these questions in connection with her (or you) wanting to get an annulment, you should discuss with the lawyer handling your annulment, not with strangers on the Internet.

As for all the people complaining about “hostility”, when a new poster comes on here and starts making unproven allegations about a priest in their first post, many people are going to be suspicious of that. Such allegations should be made to the proper authorities, by the victim if the victim is an adult, and aren’t really Internet discussion fodder, even if the priest is not named. We don’t know any of you, we have no idea who’s credible in this instance, and it’s not our business.
 
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AnonEMouse said:
It is far beyond the statute of limitations in the state where the abuse occurred, and I don’t have evidence of ongoing abuse on new victims that is not circumstantial.

It is old abuse that has been successfully covered up in this case
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You should report in any case. Abuse may be continuing. And subject to any requests by the police if they do make inquiries you should report to the Catholic authorities. There will be a page to do this on your diocese website.
 
AnonEMouse said:
The effected dioscese, as I said, is run with the priest in question as essentially second in command (Vicar General of Clergy) and he takes the child abuse claims, so dead end there.
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It is far from a dead end. If you know that one of the most senior priests in a diocese is a pedophile, frankly, you have a moral responsibility to ensure that he is brought to justice and unable to abuse more children. You can go directly to the bishop. If the bishop is a suffragan, you can go to his metropolitan archbishop. If he is a metropolitan archbishop, you can alert the USCCB (assuming you are in the United States) and the relevant authorities in Rome.
AnonEMouse said:
It is far beyond the statute of limitations in the state where the abuse occurred, and I don’t have evidence of ongoing abuse on new victims that is not circumstantial.
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Nonetheless, the civil authorities have a responsibility to safeguard children and vulnerable adults. The fact that a criminal prosecution may now be impossible does not mean that the authorities are entirely powerless to prevent him from abusing more children.

ETA: To the best of my knowledge there is also no statute of limitations for canonical trials held by the Church.
 
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do_justly_love_mercy said:
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AnonEMouse:
You seem hostile; I find that odd.
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I, too, find that answer oddly hostile. … I think it deserves more than a few words of Latin to deal with it adequately.
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No hostility intended.

I inferred the OP was inquiring tithe validity of the sacrament. If that inference was mistaken, and if you will excuse few more words of Latin: Mea culpa

My only other answer, which does not seem very meaningful, but here I am, is: I know of no particular statements of the Church regarding such matters.
 
Thank you for your reply.

I’m not making any accusations; everything I’m posted here is anonymous.

And yes I am exploring this through other channels. But there is nothing wrong with seeking information here or elsewhere. I figured this might be a good spot to find if anyone has dealt with this before, or even speak to someone with the church-legal knowledge. If someone posts a thological question here, I don’t suppose you say, “Talk to a theologian, not strangers on the Internet.”

I’m familiar with the Internet “n00b” concept and I see how it here applies.

I am not asking anyone to believe an accusation, nor I am asking a theological question. I am asking if anyone knows of another case like this and/or of the church has ever said anything about it. If mine is the first annulment that involves an abusive priest performing the wedding ceremony, it wpuld surprise me, but so be it.
 
As I said, I have already gone to the dioscese (and presented evidence beyond what is on this thread) and the church where the wedding was performed. The outcome investigation in the dioscese is unknown to me.

I am quite sure there is ongoing abuse, especially insofar as this case contributes to the systemic problem that goes up the hierarchy.
 
Thank you.

And I love Latin! As I have been saying often in our current crisis, if you will forgive classical rather than patristic, “Forsan et hæc olim meminisse juvabat.”
 
And also do forgive me if I inferred more hostility than present.

Peace to you and anyone else here
 
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