Why is church lenient to fornicators than to cohabitators in respect to communion

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I’m confused…aren’t those having sex outside of marriage fornicators?
 
There’s no way to prove that someone is fornicating. The Church assumes that Catholics know and understand fully what is required to be in a state of Grace. It’s up to the individual and their conscience to make sure they are receiving worthily.
 
Paul said, in Corinthians, it was the reason why so many people
were sick and weak and have died !
They partook - unworthily !
Imagine that ! Your a fornicator - and receive the Eucharist!
No way - would I do something that fake and dangerous.
 
LundyLund said:
How does the Church know if persons are fornicating? It’s not like they wear a sign broadcasting it.
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For that matter, how does the Church know if the people are cohabiting? Or if the person presenting themselves for communion is actually a baptist? Or a hindu? I don’t think they do, and no one else there probably doesn’t know either
 
Sex outside of marriage means that the person also should not go to communion.
I am not sure why the Church doesn’t speak out about this.
Some of the reasons why there is this difference which are provided by posters here are good. Perhaps another reason why the Church is speaking out to say cohabitators, or those divorcing and remarrying without an annulment, should not go to communion, is that there is a drive to say they can go too communion, and it is important to correct this view.
It is much better to tell those in a state of mortal sin not to go to communion for the sake of their own souls. For them to go to communion is of no benefit for them. This only separates them all the more from God.
 
Indeed, cohabitation in itself is not a sin. A man and a woman can live together without sexual sin.
 
Yes, if one falls into the sin of fornication, one may go to confession and then receive. If one is cohabitating, one can’t go to confession without a firm intention to “sin no more”…which would mean to end that arrangement.
 
Thats the same argument I would used for cohabitators. How will the church know if they are living together as couples (sexually active) or just like brother/sister. The church still insists that they should live separately otherwise its considered a sin.
 
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Whenever a priest bring up the topic on not receiving communion or sins, more emphasizes is given on cohabitators and homosexuals. Why doesn’t he specifically mention fornicators here as well. This gives a picture to the people specially the youth that fornication is not that bad.
 
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vio_dsa said:
The Church is very clear on not giving holy communion to cohabitators, I guess its mainly because they are living like married couples (having sex outside the bond of marriage). Fornicators do the same thing, they have sex before marriage and surprisingly the church are not strict with them.
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This is not true. The Church’s teaching is the same.

When we go to confession, we have to be sorry for our sins and we have to desire to do our best to refrain from repeating the sin.

If in the confessional, a priest determines that the confessee has no intent to at least try to stop fornicating, then absolution can/should be withheld.

With cohabitation, the situation is the same, plus it also lends itself to scandal. If the confesse refuses to remove him/herself from the near occasion of sin (sleeping in the same bed) then it makes it even more difficult for the priest to grant absolution.

So in reality there really isn’t a difference, except that everyone who knows the couple is cohabiting is assuming that the couple is fornicating (which can desensitize people to this sin, and the example the couple sets can lead others to fornication and/or cohabitation too – for example: I know many baby boomers who were 100% against cohabitation until one of their kids did it, then they because OK with their other kids doing it too).

God Bless.
 
I totally agree with you and you have explained it in a beautiful way, specially the second line as its the same thing that bothers me. The church surely knows that there are many people specially youth living in this life style but still nothing is said about it. It makes me sad to see these young people living in sin. Sadly even the parents are not correcting them.
 
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Yes you are right about the Church assuming that the people know about it. I know some churches that have failed to teach their confirmation students/youth about what mortal sin is. And they are the ones who are easily trapped in this life style of ‘if everybody is doing it, then its ok’. How are they supposed to know when its not taught/preached to them.
 
You mean that a person who confesses the sin of fornication wont be sleeping with his/her partner ever again till they get married. The priest should also tell this person to leave/break the relationship and ‘sin no more’.
 
When a person confesses a sin of cohabitation the priest advises this person to start living separately as an sign of full repentance, but when someone confesses of fornication, the priest doesn’t advise this person to leave/break this relationship. This same person is also most likely to be tempted to sleep with his/her partner even if they are not living together.
 
vio_dsa said:
The church surely knows that there are many people specially youth living in this life style but still nothing is said about it.
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The Church most certainly has said something about people living in these circumstances, and wants to draw them back to her and to a lifestyle based in Truth, with full access to the sacraments and God’s grace.

Read Amoris Laetitia, it discusses this very problem.
 
vio_dsa said:
Whenever a priest bring up the topic on not receiving communion or sins, more emphasizes is given on cohabitators and homosexuals.
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You are trying to generalize here. Don’t confuse your limited experience with what other people experience.

If you are trying to argue this is universally true you are simply wrong.
vio_dsa said:
Why doesn’t he specifically mention fornicators here as well
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Why don’t to ask him?
vio_dsa said:
This gives a picture to the people specially the youth that fornication is not that bad.
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I’m not sure how you can arrive at the conclusion that someone would think Sin A is not bad because the priest gave a homily on Sin B. That’s really not logical.
 
vio_dsa said:
but when someone confesses of fornication, the priest doesn’t advise this person to leave/break this relationship.
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Now you are just making stuff up. You have no idea what a priest tells people in confession.

Moreover there is no reason to “leave” but rather there is a need to be chaste.
 
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