Being a Devout Catholic while married to a divorced person

[Caribeing]

Is it possible to be a devout Catholic and receive the Sacraments if you are married to a divorced person. This query has been prompted by Bruce Forsyth who arranged a meeting with the pope for his wilfe Welnelia's birthday. She is a devout Catholic. Bruce has been married three times twice divorced. I understood that you had to obey the laws of the Church and God. Is marriage outside the Catholic Church allowed in these circumstances.!!

[andy-hughes]

The Catholic Church is renowned for its abilitity to see the world through eyes that suit its doctrines.

My wife is a Catholic, and her marriage was annulled - the church was far more concerned that her first husband refused to attend his children's baptisms than his physical violence towards her - it was his refusal to uphold their Catholic upbringing that allowed the marriage to be annulled - not his violence. This means that in the eyes of the Church, my wife was unmarried, and therefore we were allowed to marry in a Catholic church with a full nuptual mass, even though i am an Athesist. I simply had to confirm to the priest that any children we had would be brought up as Catholics - which she was, i have no problem with religion, but it is an interesting viewpoint from the priesthood.

Therefore, in line with this thinking, the current Mrs Forsyth's devoutness would not be questioned, since she has apparently led a good Catholic life - and they can gloss over ther husband's past quite easily.

Remember, this is an organisation who's response to discovered child abuse is simply to move the offender elsewhere to offend again - 'what the eye doesn't see' is a phrase that could have been invented for the Catholic view of the world.

[Caribeing]

andy hughes, thanks for your excellent reply. It does seem the Church turns a blind eye to a lot of things so I suppose if people are happy with their conscience and believe they are doing the right thing let them continue to do so. The church can bend rules to suit themselves and celebrities!

[China Doll]

My mother was/is a devout catholic, she actually switched from her CoE upbringing to the catholic faith. When she divorced my father she has issues with a priest who wasn't entirely happy about her recieving communion as a divorced woman and suggeste an annullment. Suprisingly (it was, she was quite devout at the time) and thankfully she refused to do this as she couldn't understand how the catholic church could confirm her marriage never existed and explain away her three daughters!

These days her and her new (ish) husband are still very religious but they seem to have found a church which puts less stock in doctrine and more in the actions and some of the nicer principals of living life that religion can at time advocate. I'm unsure what the denomination is, I know it's christian. Ultimately I think if the catholic church doctrine over time can push my mother to the arms of another form of christianity, then it will in the end turn in on itself. When that happens, I really will thank God.

[beso]

Catholisism specialise in reinterpreting their beliefs to include those who don't fit. They managed to drop the prohibition on pork to get the Romans on board.

But why would anyone care? Junk philosophy is worthless no matter how many people believe in it.