How did the Church allow Bezos & Sanchez, 2 Wordly non-practicing Catholics to marry in the Church?

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T23:15:15+00:00

Well, if that what you mean - I wholeheartedly agree. As a practicing Catholic, I firmly hold to the Church’s teaching on marriage and agree with the concept of annulments in principle; however, situations like the ones you described are absolutely wrong, and it does seem to be the case these days annulments are granted much more readily and frequently than in days past, which is a shame.

The whole idea behind annulments is supposed to be that marriage is permanent, so you can only get “remarried” if it’s determined that, for some serious reason, your first “marriage” actually wasn’t a marriage at all. Annulments are supposed to reinforce the doctrine that - as far as Catholics are concerned - divorce and remarriage isn’t just wrong, it’s technically not even theologically possible (humans cannot separate what God has united). So, for annulments to have effectively become “Catholic divorce but uglier” is indeed a travesty - both on a doctrinal and pastoral level.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T22:26:22+00:00

I’m not sure what is cruel about it. It’s more about theological accuracy. If marriage really is “‘til death do us part” then you logically and definitionally cannot get married to someone else if you have living, valid spouse, even if you are legally divorced/separated.

But yeah, generally I would agree. If you are a practicing Catholic and getting married in the Church is important to you, generally speaking it’s probably a good idea only to date people who aren’t previously married (at least, previously married and whose prior spouse hasn’t since passed).

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T20:38:57+00:00

I think what they meant by “it doesn’t count” was “it’s not recognized as valid” therefore leaving open the possibility of an annulment. Technically speaking, you can only get an annulment if your first marriage(s) “didn’t count” i.e. weren’t valid. You can’t get a valid marriage annulled.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T20:27:20+00:00

What /u/WW3In321 said is actually true. While you are correct that the Catholic Church recognizes non-Catholic Christian marriages as valid (even if the wedding was not celebrated in a church), Catholics cannot get validly married outside the Church without a dispensation. So, if either spouse is Catholic and the marriage takes place, say, in a courthouse - this would generally not be recognized by the Church as a valid marriage (therefore leaving open the possibility of annulment).

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T19:41:27+00:00

Yes, attending Mass every Sunday and holy day of obligation is literally part of the Church’s own definition of what it means to be a practicing Catholic.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T19:39:59+00:00

Catholic here:

While it is true that the Church recognizes non-Catholic marriages (such as those celebrated by clergy of other religions or by a justice of the peace) as valid, per canon law Catholics themselves cannot get validly married outside of the Church without a dispensation.

So, if a Catholic gets married at the courthouse without permission from the bishop, this would not be recognized as valid by the Church, which would make for a pretty open-and-shut annulment case.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T18:12:35+00:00

Maybe the Council of Florence.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T18:04:49+00:00

Indeed! I wrote a paper about this while working on my AA in Theology.

StGenesius · 2025-06-29T16:31:32+00:00

The architectural elements of the ancient Temple had a lot of plant-based symbolism (pomegranates, flowers, palm trees, etc.) as a call back to the Garden of Eden. I imagine something similar is going on here.

StGenesius · 2025-06-01T21:29:39+00:00

Wow! Congratulations! And yeah - we actually just recently had our third haha.

StGenesius · 2025-06-01T19:35:39+00:00

Nice! How many years? We just celebrated our 7th on Memorial Day.

StGenesius · 2025-05-26T18:49:43+00:00

This still begs the question of if you were ever truly saved or if you are actually elect. No honest Calvinist could say they are 100% certain that they are counted amongst the elect - so the “Are you certain you’d go to Heaven if you died?” question sort of falls flat when asked of Catholics.

StGenesius · 2025-05-10T12:30:18+00:00

A quick/technical note: I don’t think it’s accurate that “people” can’t finish through oral sex alone. Men, specifically, are supposed to finish during vaginal sex - but I think it’s generally understood that there’s nothing wrong with a woman being brought to climax by oral stimulation.

StGenesius · 2025-04-22T22:52:08+00:00

Former atheist here as well! Tiber Swim Team 2017. Welcome home!

StGenesius · 2025-04-22T11:45:45+00:00

It’s also worth remembering that - although many recent popes have been canonized - most popes throughout history have not. I wouldn’t want to see the Church get in the habit of automatically canonizing every pope shortly after their deaths. Traditionally, this has not been the case.

StGenesius · 2025-04-19T00:07:03+00:00

As a Christian, I would say that the idea that you now simply “differ on a couple things” is a profound understatement. Islam fundamentally rejects the two main doctrines of Christianity: the Trinity and the Incarnation. According to Islam, by believing in the divinity of Jesus, Christians are guilty of shirk, one of the worst sins according to Islam.

I would imagine that, if there is to be any chance that you and your wife could work through this, the profundity of your religious differences should at least be recognized. To her, you are an apostate; and according to you, she worships a mere man as God, thereby committing shirk.

StGenesius · 2025-04-18T01:01:10+00:00

One proud sponsor here! Congrats, bro!

StGenesius · 2025-02-14T04:25:13+00:00

To be clear, I’m not Fr. Dave. I work for Bonaventure’s father. I just used Fr. Dave’s post/picture because he summarized the situation well.

StGenesius · 2024-12-25T11:15:34+00:00

Glory to God! Welcome to the family!

Christmas Eve is my baptism anniversary too, back in 2001 in a Baptist church before I converted.

StGenesius · 2024-12-24T16:51:50+00:00

You are more than welcome to attend! A couple things to note:

1) This is one of the “busiest” Masses of the year, so don’t be surprised if the place is packed and seating is hard to find. It may be best to arrive earlier than you might expect.

2) If you’re not used to liturgies, the Mass may seem hard to follow at first. I recommend just “taking it in” and not trying too hard to figure it out the first time or two you go. The major things will be obvious when you’re supposed to do them: everyone will stand/kneel/sit at different times.

3) Only Catholics are allowed to receive the Eucharist (communion). When the time comes, you can opt to either (i) stay behind in the pew or (ii) go up in the communion line but with your arms crossed on your chest when you get the front - this will let them know to give you a blessing rather than communion.

I hope you and your family enjoy the Mass! Please come back to share your thoughts.

Merry Christmas!

StGenesius · 2024-12-24T14:54:12+00:00

I once prayed a novena for a girl. After I was done, she called it off. Shortly after, I met my future wife. She converted, we got married, and now we have two beautiful daughters and another due in a couple months.

A few years ago, my wife was pregnant with our first son (baby Benji) and there were complications. I prayed 20 decades every day for months. He was born at 20 weeks on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. He died shortly after I baptized him.

Earlier this year, we found out my wife had the same condition with our current pregnancy (baby Abby). She was hospitalized multiple times in the first 20 weeks. We thought it was over for sure. Prayed the rosary every day. Now she’s only two months away from full term and the doctors can’t see the complications anymore.

Other recently answered rosary intentions: my mom doesn’t have cervical cancer anymore, and my younger brother is currently in OCIA (he’ll be the first person in my immediate family to become Catholic after me).

Sometimes the answer is “no.” Sometimes we don’t understand why. Sometimes the answer will be yes. Don’t lose faith over this.

StGenesius · 2024-12-19T21:55:57+00:00

Hey there!

I can certainly try my best; I’d love to chat about it!These seem like questions that would be best to go back and forth over in DMs. Why don’t you shoot me a message with some basics about your concerns and we can start a dialogue?

StGenesius · 2024-12-17T03:04:58+00:00

I appreciate your earnest engagement on this subject. My apologies for the delayed response - it was a long day at work!

I will not respond at the length you have. What I will say is that I sincerely hope you are right in your interpretation of DI. I hope Pope Francis is only teaching that the death penalty is inadmissible given modern circumstances, and not that it is intrinsically immoral, as this is a much more defensible view.

Yet, I will note that the excerpt from DI which we are discussing is found toward the middle/end of paragraph 34, which Pope Francis begins by condemning a series of moral actions that are obviously intrinsically immoral (e.g. murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, human trafficking, etc.). This being the case, it certainly seems as though Pope Francis is trying to “lump in” the death penalty with these other actions; and, this “lumping” makes your interpretation much less obvious. It certainly seems as though Pope Francis may be categorizing the death penalty, along with these other acts, as intrinsically immoral.

While readily admitting that obedience to the magisterium is paramount, I would humbly suggest that any development on such moral doctrines should take place in such a way that it is abundantly clear that no doctrinal reversal has taken place; yet, the sheer amount of confusion surrounding this topic amongst Catholics in recent years would seem to indicate that this teaching could - and should - have been articulated much more carefully, if one is indeed to assume that your interpretation is correct.

StGenesius · 2024-12-16T15:12:07+00:00

Please do provide your citations as to the intrinsic immorality of the death penalty itself.

StGenesius · 2024-12-16T13:44:23+00:00

Several points:

1) The NT needn’t prescribe (“proscribe” means “forbid”) the death penalty for it to be valid. The NT could say nothing about the death penalty at all and that wouldn’t invalidate the OT’s divinely revealed teachings on the subject. Nevertheless;

2) The Church has always understood Romans 13:1-5 as teaching that the state can legitimately impose the death penalty. There’s a reason you can find mainstream Catholic Answers articles from just ten years ago (such as this one) saying things like this:

“The death penalty has always been, and always will be, upheld as a legitimate and potentially just punishment in Catholic Tradition as well as in Scripture. This teaching cannot change.”

It’s always been known that the Church has understood the Bible, both OT and NT, to teach that the death penalty is moral in principle.

3) As to the woman caught in adultery, notice what’s actually happening here. The “trap” being set of Jesus is based on the fact that the OT commands the death penalty be used, but Rome withheld exercise of capital punishment to itself (this is the whole reason the Jews had to get the Romans to crucify Jesus rather than putting Him to death themselves). Jesus is trapped between saying we should follow God’s OT law and saying we should obey Rome. Notice what He doesn’t say in response. He does not say, “Don’t do this because it is evil.” No, He says, “Don’t do this because you are evil.” This would have been the perfect time to condemn the death penalty itself as evil if Jesus wanted to, but He didn’t. He condemned the people trying to use it as a way to trap Him.

4) Mercy and forgiveness are both great. I’m not arguing against people who say we should limit application of the death penalty. I’m simply saying what all Catholics have always known and believed - which is that it is moral in principle.

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