|
Hi, Kristin —
You can only be validly married once
in the Catholic Church. The
reason behind this is because the
Church protects and safeguards Our
Lord's teaching on marriage being:
- a lifetime
commitment between one man
and one woman
- that is focused on (being open to|bringing)
new life into the world.
If your ex— got married twice in the
Catholic Church, one of his marriages
must have been invalid and therefore
annulled. When a marriage gets annulled
both parties are able to re-marry
in the Church.
The purpose of the annulment process
is to ensure the Church is not blessing bigamy, or more broadly polygamy: where:
- a man is married
to multiple wives, or
- a wife is married
to multiple husbands.
As to your unique situation, I would
seek out a priest known for his faithfulness
to the Church and make an appointment
with him. Tell him you have
no interest in joining the Church
but are just looking for good pastoral
advice and want to understand how to
handle your current marital situation.
You said:
I just don't
understand who they think they are,
by looking down on us!
Using part of an answer my colleague
Paul gave in another posting:
The Church isn't treating you as
a second class citizen, but just
the opposite.
She recognizes your
dignity as God's child and the dignity
of your decisions in creating, what
you had once saw as,
a Marriage.
The Church is staying
true to the words of Jesus that all
valid marriages are permanent by
nature — even those outside
of the Church. |
You said:
- Who are they to judge me while all this
time, you see Catholic priests that think
they are all high and mighty, molesting
these young boys?
No faithful Catholic Christian should ever defend the scandalous behavior performed by these priests and neither does anyone from AskACatholic. Scandalous behavior like this in the Church is very damaging because many, either don't know, or forget that you have to separate:
- bad, scandalous behavior among the laity and the clergy at all levels, including the pope, from
- Divine, unchangeable Teachings that never will change, despite our bad behavior.
For the Church, I apologize for the bad behavior from our members but encourage you to keep your eyes focused on the unchangeable teachings Jesus left for us and which continue to this today as seen through the Church's Magisterium!
Hope this helps,
Mike
|
