Searching for the Truth - Please Help

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Moral relativism is a bad thing. The devil loves to confuse people. Why is there no clear answer on the issue of receiving communion while being in an invalid marriage?

Catholic.com says it is ok if the couple lives as “brother and sister”.
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=70222
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=103000

EWTN clearly says it is never ok to receive any sacrament while in this state.
“there is no room for subjective interpretation with regard to the admission to Holy Communion. Catholics living in invalid marriages are not permitted to receive Holy Communion (canon 915). This traditional discipline was reaffirmed by the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts on June 24, 2000.”

ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=576350&record_bookmark=9&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2008&Author=&Keyword=valid+marriage&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ID+DESC&start_at=

“Those living in an invalid marriage are not permitted to receive the sacraments”
ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=571602&record_bookmark=24&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2008&Author=&Keyword=valid+marriage&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ID+DESC&start_at=

How do I find the truth?
 
The EWTN links you provide are directed to people who are living as husband and wife in an invalid marriage. This is the sin of adultery.

The Catholic.com answer is also correct, a couple in an invalid marriage who are living as brother and sister are not commiting the sin of adultery.

I don’t know if you are asking this as a theoretical excersize or if you know someone in a situation similar to what you are describing. If you know someone in this situation, I recommend they see their parish priest and start the process for seeing if a declaration of nullity could be granted as soon as possible.

God Bless You.
 
Thank you for your response. In the case I am referring to, there is no annulment necessary since there was no previous marriage. The convalidation is in process, but takes some time.

I believe that EWTN is not directing their stance specifically at those who are sexually active as you have stated. There is still the issue of scandal and occassion of sin. I’m sorry for not posting this earlier, but here is another posting. Please respond with your thoughts. I would really like to find the answer.

Q: "I read on Catholic Answers that you can receive Holy Communion if you live like brother and sister. Is this information correct? Thank You "

A: “No. It is not correct. That is a simplistic understanding of when the brother-sister relationship applies. There is also the issue of scandal, which more and more people forgot about nowadays. The Catholic Church is concerned about more than what people are doing in their bedrooms.
People who know you and know that you are in an invalid marriage are not privy to the fact that you are not sexually active (nor should they be privy to this information). Therefore, your relationship is a source of scandal. Because of scandal, you are not permitted to receive Holy Communion.”

ewtn.com/vexperts/showresult.asp?RecNum=575933&record_bookmark=11&Forums=0&Experts=0&Days=2008&Author=&Keyword=valid+marriage&pgnu=1&groupnum=0&ORDER_BY_TXT=ORDER+BY+ID+DESC&start_at=
 
You are correct about scandal and near occasion of sin, I elected not to bring those up in my first post, so as not to add confusion. And to be totally honest, I am not real clear on the sin of scandal. I know it involves leading others to believe you are commiting a sin, even if you are not in fact, usually revolving around sexual sin. I am not sure it is a mortal sin, which would prevent a person from receiving the Eucharist. On reflection, the scandal would really probably result from the assumption that someone was receiving Eucharist unworthily. And wouldn’t that really be more the other person’s sin?

So your talking about a couple, presumably one or both baptised Catholics, who got married outside the church without a dispensation?

In any case, it is probably best to seek counsel from the parish priest, they are the experts on these matters.
 
Yes I am speaking of a couple where both are baptized Catholics who were married civilly and never married before.

I believe there are two issues at stake here. The first being able to receive a valid confession. The second is being in a state of grace to receive communion. The second cannot happen without the first.

My understanding of scandal is that it does not matter what people say or if the couple is really being celibate. People discussing rumors in itself may be a sin but does not take away from the sin of the couple. They are putting themselves in a position to be talked about. That is the sin. There is also the sin of near occassion which may be complicated if there are children, as there are in this case. Of course the couple should not separate; for the sake of the children. This lessens the gravity of that sin and in fact may remove it altogether.

In order to receive a valid confession, one must repent and make a conscience effort to not sin again. Living together even as brother and sister does not remove the sins of scandal and occassion.

I hate to say this, but I am reluctant to speak to a priest about issues. I find that studying is more effective for me. The last priest that we consulted said it was not a sin to miss mass on Sunday. Needless to say, that turned into a heated discussion and was quite uncomfortable. Also the priest at my local parish posted support for women priests in the bulletin. I no longer go to that church.

I was listening to Fr. Corapi’s Catechism Q&A #4 today and his explanation makes the most sense to me at this point. He says the couple may go to confession and receive communion if
  1. They have made the effort to convalidate the marriage
  2. They live as brother and sister until the marriage is valid
It is probable that starting the convalidation process removes the scandal and shows repentence for a valid confession. This is a critical point that was not stated in catholic.com’s response nor ewtn’s response. If #1 is not included, then couples may cohabitate and live as brother and sister. This is clearly not allowed.
 
Please understand that there are 2 different answers with regard to the 2 sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion.

The Cathechism is saying that only one who truly repents can be absolved–and that means that unless someone is sincere in turning away from the sin, absolution cannot be given. To put that another way, someone who intends to return to the sinful situation cannot expect to be absolved of the past.

Also, please keep in mind that while it is possible for someone in an invalid marriage to go to confession, be absolved, and then receive Communion, that’s not the same thing as saying that anyone who is in an invalid marriage can go to confession and then receive Communion. That’s why the 3 internet posts we’ve seen here are all correct, but they can’t be taken as general statements to be applied to individual situations.

Abstaining from the marital act itself (after Confession) isn’t always sufficient, if the couple is still otherwise living together as if they were validly married. To put that another way, just because confessing and then “living as brother and sister” is a condition for Communion, does not mean that it’s the only condition.
 
Scandal can occur because others who know the marriage is irregular and see the couple receiving communion may believe that this is permitted and may be encouraged to do the same.

I think in this case, the priest sometimes suggests that the couple should only receive communion in a parish where they are not known and their situation may not be misinterpreted.
 
Father is of course correct. I always remind people that couples in these types of situations need to be in pastoral/spiritual counseling with a priest to help then navigate through.

I agree that some folks on message boards are kind of simplifying what happens and doing a great disservice to people.

I have a bone to pick with “convalidation process”. There is usually no process involved if both are free to marry and have been living as husband and wife. They don’t usually have to go through Pre-Cana( which would be six weeks or something at most) just some counseling with the priest. It doesn’t take that long. This seems to get put off for some reason that can’t be justified.I suppose you could have a situation where there seems to be some other impediment but that’s a whole 'nother story.
 
Rather than for us to try to summarize the matter, here is what then-Cardinal Ratzinger had to say in 1994: vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_14091994_rec-holy-comm-by-divorced_en.html

With respect to the aforementioned new pastoral proposals, this Congregation deems itself obliged therefore to recall the doctrine and discipline of the Church in this matter. In fidelity to the words of Jesus Christ, the Church affirms that a new union cannot be recognised as valid if the preceding marriage was valid. If the divorced are remarried civilly, they find themselves in a situation that objectively contravenes God’s law. Consequently, they cannot receive Holy Communion as long as this situation persists.

This norm is not at all a punishment or a discrimination against the divorced and remarried, but rather expresses an objective situation that of itself renders impossible the reception of Holy Communion: “They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and his Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: if these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage”.

**The faithful who persist in such a situation may receive Holy Communion only after obtaining sacramental absolution, which may be given only “to those who, repenting of having broken the sign of the Covenant and of fidelity to Christ, are sincerely ready to undertake a way of life that is no longer in contradiction to the indissolubility of marriage. **This means, in practice, that when for serious reasons, for example, for the children’s upbringing, a man and a woman cannot satisfy the obligation to separate, they ‘take on themselves the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples’”. In such a case they may receive Holy Communion as long as they respect the obligation to avoid giving scandal.

As we can see, all of the sources cited in the original post were correct. Each of the two sources was simply answering slightly different questions.

So take some comfort here in that what we’re seeing is not “moral relativism” but different questions, which only seem to be identical on the surface.

The CAF answers both addressed the issue that the person being admitted to Communion FIRST went to confession.

The EWTN answers did not address the issue of confession because that wasn’t part of the questions. And given the phrasing of the questions themselves, the matter of first confessing wasn’t germane to those particular responses.

I hope this helps to clarify the matter.
 
Thanks for the additional information, FrDavid. It is an excellent explanation by the then-Cardinal. Also, thanks for the link to vatican.va. I always like to get additional resources for my studies.

I understand that every circumstance is different, but I do find it a bit troubling that some of the answers fail to provide all the information, especially those in FAQs. I reread many of the answers about invalid marriages at catholic.com and at EWTN and I still find them confusing because they are so specific. For example, to say, “As long as you are living in an invalid marriage, you are not permitted to receive any of the sacraments.” can easily be misunderstood by people searching for answers to similar questions. Also, there are many answers to questions about invalid marriages that talk about living as brother and sister that do not address scandal and near occassion of sin and the ways to avoid these.

Answers are not only for the person who posts the question, but for those with similar questions. That is why we have message boards and search functions.

Thanks again. I am grateful to you for finding the answer to my question.
 
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