C
ChiroCatholic
Guest
Is it immoral to date a non-Catholic divorced man (who was not married in the Church)? My guess is that it would be, but I thought I would ask your opinions.
- Status
G
GregoryPalamas
Guest
I don’t have an official answer but given the fact that one should never date a person they don’t wish to marry why would a faithful Catholic choose such a person to date?
Dan L
Dan L
1
1ke
Guest
The purpose of dating is to lead towards marriage. This person is not free to marry. Therefore it is not prudent to become involved with such a peson until such time as their marriage has been declared null.
C
Catholic2003
Guest
As a practical matter, I’ve always wondered how it should work. Should the Catholic have the divorced non-Catholic go through the annulment process in order to go out on the first date?
S
StephanieC
Guest
Here’s a search result from the Ask an Apologist forum:
forums.catholic-questions.org/search.php?searchid=1181058
The answer that seems to fit your question is:
"Dear G,
If the man is divorced and there is no proof that his marriage was invalid, then to date him is to date someone else’s husband. At this point he is still spoken for and it would be sinful to act as if he isn’t. Better to look elsewhere.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P."
forums.catholic-questions.org/search.php?searchid=1181058
The answer that seems to fit your question is:
"Dear G,
If the man is divorced and there is no proof that his marriage was invalid, then to date him is to date someone else’s husband. At this point he is still spoken for and it would be sinful to act as if he isn’t. Better to look elsewhere.
Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P."
L
LittleDeb
Guest
This one is such a difficult situation to call. My now husband was not Catholic and divorced at the time we started dating. He told me he was divorced on our first date not before it. Since he didn’t understand the teachings of the Church then I understood why he waited to tell me.
Here is the interesting part that we had trouble understanding. The tribunal only has authority to examine marriages for decree of nullity if we as Catholics submit them for examination. From what I have read the only other ones they will examine are those from people considering becoming Catholic and those who are considering marrying a Catholic.
Is this a catch-22? How can you be considering marrying a Catholic if a Catholic hadn’t consented to date a divorced person?
For us personally it was because my husband was willing to file his paperwork from day one that we continued to date. We also studied his former marriage and discussed that it had more ear-marks of not being a marriage than it did of being a marriage.
One of the reasons he became Catholic was because of the the teaching on marriage. He said he always felt like a marriage never took place but his evangelical church said that since they said the vows, a marriage took place.
Here is the interesting part that we had trouble understanding. The tribunal only has authority to examine marriages for decree of nullity if we as Catholics submit them for examination. From what I have read the only other ones they will examine are those from people considering becoming Catholic and those who are considering marrying a Catholic.
Is this a catch-22? How can you be considering marrying a Catholic if a Catholic hadn’t consented to date a divorced person?
For us personally it was because my husband was willing to file his paperwork from day one that we continued to date. We also studied his former marriage and discussed that it had more ear-marks of not being a marriage than it did of being a marriage.
One of the reasons he became Catholic was because of the the teaching on marriage. He said he always felt like a marriage never took place but his evangelical church said that since they said the vows, a marriage took place.
- Status