Marriage to Step-Daughters

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frankk
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Frankk

Guest
A man marries a woman who has two children: a boy age 6 and a girl age 4. They go on to have two children of their own. Some years later he divorces his wife. After moving into a home of his own he experiences problems paying his mortgage.
To help pay the mortgage his step-daughter [now working] moves in with him.

Not too long afterwards they marry. They now have two children of their own. In a new parish they both attend Mass and take Communion. Is this consistent with Church teaching and morals? He is viewed as a pillar of the church community but can his/her actions be justified through the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
 
Frankk said:
A man marries a woman who has two children: a boy age 6 and a girl age 4. They go on to have two children of their own. Some years later he divorces his wife. After moving into a home of his own he experiences problems paying his mortgage.
To help pay the mortgage his step-daughter [now working] moves in with him.

Not too long afterwards they marry. They now have two children of their own. In a new parish they both attend Mass and take Communion. Is this consistent with Church teaching and morals? He is viewed as a pillar of the church community but can his/her actions be justified through the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
Click to expand...
I have a beautiful step daughter who is an adult now. Honestly, I don’t know if there would be anything sinful at all if I married her, provided her mother (my wife) had passed away… but the creep factor of the idea of it is completely “off the hook”!

Lord forbid my wife croaks before me, but if that happens, I think I’ll go looking for dates somewhere other than with my step kids!

This happy couple doesn’t live in Kentucky do they?
😃 😃 😃 😃 😃 😃
 
Frankk said:
Not too long afterwards they marry. They now have two children of their own.
Click to expand...
Regarding his first marriage:

*Can. 1085 §1. A person bound by the bond of a prior marriage, even if it was not consummated, invalidly attempts marriage.

§2. Even if the prior marriage is invalid or dissolved for any reason, it is not on that account permitted to contract another before the nullity or dissolution of the prior marriage is established legitimately and certainly.*

Furthermore, there is a bond of affinity or public propriety arising from the first marriage which would also render this attempt at marriage between the man and his step-daughter invalid even if he were free to marry otherwise-- unless dispensed:

Can. 1092 Affinity in the direct line in any degree invalidates a marriage.
*
Can. 1093 The impediment of public propriety arises from an invalid marriage after the establishment of common life or from notorious or public concubinage. It nullifies marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the man and the blood relatives of the woman, and vice versa.*
Frankk said:
In a new parish they both attend Mass and take Communion.
Is this consistent with Church teaching and morals? He is viewed as a pillar of the church community but can his/her actions be justified through the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
Click to expand...
A person in an invalid marriage may not receive the Sacraments. Such a person would need to go to their priest and discuss the situation.
 
I would agree creep factor of course, however if the 1st wif died or the marriage had an annulment, then I would think the marriage would be ok.

Technically the girl and guy are not related, however es it is creepy.
 
ljprevo said:
I would agree creep factor of course, however if the 1st wif died or the marriage had an annulment, then I would think the marriage would be ok.

Technically the girl and guy are not related, however es it is creepy.
Click to expand...
They are related in the direct line according to the Catholic Church. Canon 1092 applies, and would require dispensation.
 
ljprevo said:
I would agree creep factor of course, however if the 1st wif died or the marriage had an annulment, then I would think the marriage would be ok.

Technically the girl and guy are not related, however es it is creepy.
Click to expand...
Are you sure they’re not related? OP doesn’t say whether the man had adopted the girl; if he had, I would think that would rule out marriage to her. But even if not, it seems hazy at best: the young woman is marrying her half-siblings’ father. Wasn’t there a country song about this some time ago?
However, if they got married in the Church (and if not, any question of receiving sacraments validly would be moot), wouldn’t this prior relationship-by-marriage have necessarily been discussed, and the marriage approved?
 
1ke said:
They are related in the direct line according to the Catholic Church. Canon 1092 applies, and would require dispensation.
Click to expand...
So it’s not an insurmountable hurdle, in other words.
 
Jude_Smith said:
Are you sure they’re not related? OP doesn’t say whether the man had adopted the girl; if he had, I would think that would rule out marriage to her.
Click to expand...
If the step-daughter were adopted, the impediment arises from a different canon than affinity:

Can. 1094 Those who are related in the direct line or in the second degree of the collateral line by a legal relationship arising from adoption cannot contract marriage together validly.
 
LilyM said:
So it’s not an insurmountable hurdle, in other words.
Click to expand...
Hmmm, upon further research it seems that maybe this cannot be dispensed:

C. 1078 §3. **A dispensation is never **given from the impediment of consanguinity **in the ****direct line **or in the second degree of the collateral line.

Perhaps it’s time for the *real *canon lawyers to join the discussion!
 
1ke said:
Hmmm, upon further research it seems that maybe this cannot be dispensed:

C. 1078 §3. **A dispensation is never **given from the impediment of consanguinity **in the ****direct line **or in the second degree of the collateral line.

Perhaps it’s time for the *real *canon lawyers to join the discussion!
Click to expand...
But ‘direct line’, it seems, does NOT include step-children unless the step-parent has legally adopted that step-child. Canon 1094 seems to suggest as much.

If so, then mere marriage to the girl’s mother isn’t enough to make that girl in his ‘direct line’.
 
gelsbern said:
I would look at this for more understanding of affinity.

newadvent.org/cathen/01178a.htm

I believe that the marriage would be invalid.
Click to expand...
This passage from it seems to say the exact opposite.

"In regard to affinity in the direct line, there was a serious discussion whether in the first degree it arose from a natural, Divine, or ecclesiastical law; by what law was a stepfather forbidden to marry his stepdaughter? The Church refrains from granting the dispensation, but does not disclaim the right to do so. "

Sounds like the opposite of saying that no dispensation is possible.
 
TLM08 said:
This happy couple doesn’t live in Kentucky do they?
😃 😃 😃 😃 😃 😃
Click to expand...
Hey! Lay off the Kentucky jokes. We don’t dew that here. Just as I was telling my wife/cousin/aunt/ (she is her own mother) last night before we put my son/her father down for the night. 😃 😃
 
LilyM said:
But ‘direct line’, it seems, does NOT include step-children unless the step-parent has legally adopted that step-child. Canon 1094 seems to suggest as much.

If so, then mere marriage to the girl’s mother isn’t enough to make that girl in his ‘direct line’.
Click to expand...
No, Canon 1092 does state affinity in the direct line is an impediment. The canon of affinity applies to the step-parent/step-child if the couple were married but the stepchild was not adopted. Canon 1093 applies if the couple were not married (just living/sleeping together or something like “common law” married). And, Canon 1094 applies if legal adoption took place.

In all three canons, the direct line relationship is an impediment.

So, again, it appears this cannot be dispensed, but I leave it to a canon lawyer to state this with authority.
 
I am certain that the step-daughter was not adopted, as marriage to an adopted daughter is illegal.

If dispensation were possible would a priest be able to give this or would it have to come from a Bishop or the Vatican?

On the ‘creepy’ issue: it does leave you wondering when ‘daddy’ became ‘darling’. :eek:
 
Frankk said:
If dispensation were possible would a priest be able to give this or would it have to come from a Bishop or the Vatican?
Click to expand...
If it can be dispensed it would be the Bishop or Holy See with authority to do so.

I am still not clear on whether it can even be dispensed at all. It seems not, but I am not a canon lawyer.
 
And this whole situation wasn’t odd to them??? She was 4 when he entered her life??? I have no idea about the validity of all this but it sure sounds uncomfortable.
 
A person in an invalid marriage may not receive the Sacraments. Such a person would need to go to their priest and discuss the situation
Click to expand...
Except the for the Sacrament in question–the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Of course, it has to be a valid Sacrament–true repentance, even ending the “marriage” if it is invalid.

I haven’t read all that stuff on “affinity.” I would think, though, that even if adoption had not occurred, fatherly co-habitation with a girl when she was that young (4 or 6?) sounds to me like it might necessarily establish an “affinity.” Whether it’s the type of affinity we’re specifically talking about for valid marriage, I’m not sure. If the man raised the girl as a father, though, it seems quite wrong to me.

Now if the first marriage had ended validly (through death or annulment), and the step-daughter had been fairly mature when he became step-father, then it wouldn’t seem so questionable.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top