Not allowed to confess until confirmation and convalidation

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I’ll try speaking with the Priest of next town. About living as brother and sister with my wife, while I have no problems at all with that, I’ll have to carefully discuss about it with my wife, as she is not a revert as I am.

See, we have been married for 16 years, officially and religiously married. In the Mormon church, but as far as she understands, religiously. We kept ourselves chaste till the day of our wedding. We both married virgins. So, it will be a very difficult card on her.
 
I understand! I hope it all works out OP. Bear in mind that the priest in the other parish might be able to help you out with a dispensation before confirmation. Especially if you are in the same diocese and the bishop can approve of it. Hopefully there’s a way of handling it without offending the priest of your current parish.
 
As a priest, I must say I’m troubled by the posters, who give no evidence of being canonists at all, who have expressed positions that are encouraging the original poster to enter into a conflict with his parish priest…the priest who is actually in situ…who knows the situation of these specific individuals and has put in place a programme for the resolution of multiple and problematic issues…who would also be aware of the Particular Law & promulgated norms governing the ecclesiastical jurisdiction to which this priest belongs and to which the original poster is a proper canonical subject

Given that Confirmation & Marriage are sacraments which require jurisdiction…either of the parish priest with jurisdiction or the Ordinary of the diocese…seeking an intervention of a priest who is not the canonical pastor is simply going to introduce another complicating dynamic

Jurisdiction is dealt with with a much different approach in other parts of the world. I’ve seen too often answers that assume the decisions of Bishops in other parts of the world simply use the same dispositions as American Bishops…and that is not the case. We make decidedly other dispositions when it comes to our Particular Law & our norms

If recourse were going to be made to anyone, it would be properly to the chancery of the diocese

Clearly this situation is dealing with a non-American in a country & culture not English language based

Therefore, the first premise must be to defer to the norms of the Bishop of the diocese & the corresponding Episcopal Conference, just as those in other parts of the world would tell Americans they must mind the laws & norms particular to their diocese & Episcopal Conference

Canon 1065.1 states: “Catholics who have not yet received the Sacrament of Confirmation are to receive it before being admitted to marriage, if this can be done without grave inconvenience.” As the Bishop is the original minister of the sacrament of Confirmation, certainly in my diocese, the Bishop has determined how to avoid “grave inconvenience,” which he has articulated definitively, but has also mandated that marriages MUST be preceded by the Sacrament of Confirmation that concern one who was baptised Catholic & subsequently was away from the Church but now seeks to return & is in need of a marriage being effected due to lack of canonical form. It is part of the essential process of returning and reconciling with the Church, which had been left. Thus the Bishop has taken the decision out of the hands of the priests of the diocese, as is his prerogative, with due regard for canons such as imminent danger of death

In the case at hand, the person was baptised Catholic, received Eucharist, and then left the Church formally. It was not that he became non-practicing. He entered another ecclesial community and moreover worked as a missionary for the other ecclesial community. It was in this condition that he contracted marriage with a non-Catholic, not observing the necessary preparation or canonical form but marrying rather according to the norms and practices of the non-Catholic community. Subsequently, he then embraced atheism
 
part 2

The path now traced out for him to resolve all these issues, precisely by the priest who has cura animarum for him, is one of a course of prescribed catechesis which has been entrusted to the Deacon; presumably this is a series that will allow for a deliberate and careful preparation for Confirmation, across a span of time of some duration, assure that the catechesis is to a standard, resolve issues and concerns related to having left Catholicism and having been away for a significant period in which he lived as a non-Catholic, also do marriage preparation relative to Church teaching, resolve any issues relative to disparity of cult, assure that the parties are in fact stable in the new circumstance, and then finally the marriage is properly convalidated while allowing for the sacrament of reconciliation for the Catholic party at the proper pastoral moment in this process.

This is really not a situation that ideally invites a sanatio in radice with its reliance on the previous consent. Given the significant degree of changes, a new exchange of consent should properly be elicited

Given the complexity of circumstances in which the Catholic left the Church to become Mormon, left Mormonism to become an Atheist, & now will be entering into & living marriage as a Catholic, it is important not only that the wife voices consent but that he also articulates a consent based in Catholic, not Mormon, understanding of marriage

A journey of pastoral accompaniment of some duration is appropriate in these circumstances so that clarity may be achieved for the parish priest, the returning Catholic, and the woman who will be living a marriage radically different

I’m sympathetic to the priest looking askance to proposing the couple living as brother & sister under the same roof when the persons concerned live in a village of some 2000+ people, particularly if it is where the predominant faith is Catholicism

The proposition of living as brother & sister under the same roof actually would not be an option in my diocese in these particular circumstances

I am sympathetic to the poster’s desire for quick resolution – but this is a situation arrived at over a number of years & stages; the journey to resolve this & restore himself to the Catholic community is also going to involve time

In other less complex circumstances, the path to resolution would be different and even decidedly different
 
Don Ruggero it is so nice reading your posts.
 
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Thank you so much for your clarifications, @Don_Ruggero.
I do not intent to hurry things up, not in a sense that I would like to force anything. As I have stated in my Original Post, I only want to be able to confess, since it’s my uttermost desire “to get rid of all my past”, for the lack of a better term.

But just as I have mentioned to my Priest, when he told me that I was not yet able to receive confirmation, I’ll say it here too: I took about 15 years to get back to God, and about 25 years to get back to the Catholic Church, it has been a long path. So, I do not mind waiting longer to be accepted back to the Church.

Thank you again for your wisdom, knowledge and clarifications.

God bless!
 
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@cfernandomaciel.

I HIGHLY recommend in the strongest terms that you read everything @Don_Ruggero said and take it to heart, and ignore anything any other poster said contrary to what Don is saying.

He is a priest in good standing with the Church.
 
Welcome back home. Perhaps God is calling you to more patience, His way is always worth it. You mentioned something earlier about feeling you can’t progress spiritually until ‘getting rid of the past’ or soemthing perhaps not exactly those terms. I just wanted to say that God’s grace and power works best in our weakness, so give God your weakness and let His power work. You can start praying and God will work with you.
 
You might be able to make a phone call and ask for advice or maybe email the parish.
 
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