What is my Status from Civil Marriage?

[Corki]

These are canons relating to mixed-marriages. How do they apply here?

If I have pieced it together correctly (from some of his other posts), he and his wife were both raised Catholic. She (and maybe he, as well) fell away from the Church, joined a protestant church and married outside the Catholic Church. It seems the priest may have applied canon 1124 and pursued a simple convalidation rather than a mixed marriage dispensation (canon 1125).

But I am guessing since, as you pointed out, many of his posts seem to be contradictory.

 

[johndoe100]

I don’t want to spoil your fun being Canon Lawyers, but this is how it took place. I was a widowed Catholic in good standing, and married a (supposedly practicing) Catholic gal during my vacation in the Philippines. Neither of us have ever been divorced and we are both Catholics from good Catholic families. Therefore, all it took was a simple confession after we repeated our vows infront of a priest. The priest blessed us and our rings. That’s all there was to it! We are now worthy to be in the communion line. I will say it again: all it took was a simple confession. No condemnation! Praise God! Thank you, Jeaus!

 

[Phemie]

I don’t want to spoil your fun being Canon Lawyers, but this is how it took place. I was a widowed Catholic in good standing, and married a (supposedly practicing) Catholic gal during my vacation in the Philippines. Neither of us have ever been divorced and we are both Catholics from good Catholic families. Therefore, all it took was a simple confession after we repeated our vows infront of a priest. The priest blessed us and our rings. That’s all there was to it! We are now worthy to be in the communion line. I will say it again: all it took was a simple confession. No condemnation! Praise God! Thank you, Jeaus!

So what is this stuff about the priest allowing you to go to your wife’s church?

 

[johndoe100]

So what is this stuff about the priest allowing you to go to your wife’s church?

VISIT, not go to my wife’s church, or partake I’m their fake communion. My wife has worked at that Protestant church for 17 years and is active in ministry there. She is a student at a 4 year Bible College, and I sit in class as a visitor. I don’t want her to travel alone in a rough neighborhood, so I am there with her in class.

This is what amazes me? All my wife has to do is go to confession and partake in the Euharist at Easter to maintain her status as a Roman Catholic. However, she is in my Parish with me at least once a month.

 

[1ke]

This is what amazes me? All my wife has to do is go to confession and partake in the Euharist at Easter to maintain her status as a Roman Catholic. However, she is in my Parish with me at least once a month.

whoever told you that is delusional.

 

[Corki]

VISIT, not go to my wife’s church, or partake I’m their fake communion. My wife has worked at that Protestant church for 17 years and is active in ministry there. She is a student at a 4 year Bible College, and I sit in class as a visitor. I don’t want her to travel alone in a rough neighborhood, so I am there with her in class.

So, you are saying that your wife has aligned herself to a Protestant church and is no longer a practicing Catholic.

All my wife has to do is go to confession and partake in the Euharist at Easter to maintain her status as a Roman Catholic. However, she is in my Parish with me at least once a month

You are correct that the Church requires all Catholics to receive Communion once a year during the Easter season and to go to Confession at least once a year. To not do so would be to violate one of the precepts of the Church. But she also requires all Catholics to attend Mass on all Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation. To not do so would be to violate another one of the precepts of the Church. It sounds like your wife is fulfilling the former but not the latter requirement.

Therefore, all it took was a simple confession after we repeated our vows infront of a priest. The priest blessed us and our rings. That’s all there was to it!

Well, from what you posted earlier, that wasn’t “all there was to it”. You said you also had to attend Mass at the parish for at least 6 months, get documentation from people who had knowledge of you being raised Catholic. The proper order, BTW, would have been Confession **followed by **the convalidation. Also, from what you have posted, it must have taken some really big effort on your part to get your wife to see the error of joining the Protestant church in order to make a valid confession. That’s no small feat.

 

[johndoe100]

Well, it looks like there a couple of guys in this thread who want desperately to hang my wife and I. Let’s, see if you guys can do it? Remember, my wife’s church couldn’t get us divorced no matter how much presure they put on her.

Let’s start with the fact that there was no “convalidation” process. That stuff went out with the floggings of medieval times.

 

[Corki]

Remember, my wife’s church couldn’t get us divorced no matter how much presure they put on her.

I thought your wife’s Church was the Catholic Church? Isn’t that why she is trying to “maintain her status as a Roman Catholic”? Your words.

Let’s start with the fact that there was no “convalidation” process.

You called it getting your marriage blessed. You exchanged vows and entered into a valid, Sacramental marriage. That was a convalidation even if you didn’t call it that at the time.

That stuff went out with the floggings of medieval times.

Hardly. In fact, with the poor catechesis of the past several decades, more and more Catholics find themselves in invalid marriages. Convalidations are all too common and necessary in today’s Church.

 

[johndoe100]

Corki,

I said, “convalidation process”! [edited]

Like Paul said in (Galatians 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me;”
[edited]

 

[Phemie]

Corki,

I said, “convalidation process”! Let me ask you? Did you posts 9k posts slamming your fist into peoples faces, or were you a nice guy at one time?

Like Paul said in (Galatians 2:20) “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me;”

Do you need to be prayed for?

Just what does “convalidation process” mean?

It sounds like you found a priest who didn’t much care what the Church said and makes his own rules. And it also sounds like your MIL lied when she said her daughter was a practicing Catholic. Going to a Protestant Church all year then popping in for Communion at Easter does not a practicing Catholic make. Just a dandy situation all around. OR you’re just here to see how much we’ll bite at a tall tale.

 

[johndoe100]

Corki,

To answer your question about my wife having one foot in the Cathloic Church and one foot in a Protestant church, it was the priest who gave her the freedom, not me. i am just a lay person of no importance. I would knuckle her down and make her be Catholic if this was still the old days. The priest who married us, and my wife are chaplains at the same Jail. There is probably exceptions between ministers of the Gospel? They are called by God whether Cathic or Protestant.

Anyway, I am happy to be back home with the Catholics and still have my beautiful young Filipino wife. She does go to church with me occasionally, so that is more than the Easter requirement. Thank you, Jesus!

 

[johndoe100]

Hello Phemie,

The situation that I am in is not ideal, but I have no other choice other that to trust God. Believe this or not, at one time I had the perfect Catholic family. Then, one day I got a call at work telling me that my wife had died. Evidently, God didn’t want me to have a quiet peaceful life, or He wouldn’t have called my first wife home. My daughter was orphaned, too. It was terrible!

Compared with the way things used to be, things are on the up swing. Plus, I’m back home in my own Church. Praise God!

 

[Elizium23]

I just want to thank 1ke and Phemie for their clear, faithful communication of true Church teaching and discipline in a topic that is a veritable minefield for many people. Catholic marriage law, poorly understood, can be a source of confusion and division. In reality, it is rooted in love and Scripture and holds fast to the teachings of Christ Himself.

Because of the patient explanations from 1ke, Phemie, and others here, I think some people have had their questions satisfactorily answered and their doubts banished. People come to Catholic Answers Forums often in a state of confusion and dismay, particularly when they hear that they might have been “living in sin” for years. As we have heard very recently from the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, remarried people are to be loved and welcomed as members of the community. He himself admits that there are no simple solutions. 1ke, Phemie and the others in this thread are explaining the options presented to people who want to work with the Church, who want to follow God’s law. It should be celebrated that people want to reconcile with the Church. The OP is moving forward, and we welcome him on his journey back to faith and the sacraments. May God bless him, and may God bless all the people in this thread who show him the way.

 

[1ke]

Corki,

I said, “convalidation process”!

What do you suppose the “convalidation process” to be? It is the exchanging of consent before a priest and two witnesses. Which is what you did.