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Thursday 11 September 2014

RCIA and a Previous Marriage?

Okay, I'm apparently in high  at least mid-level dudgeon, and everything is going to provoke me today.

(I blame my mood on the fact that everyone with whom I've hung lately told me, oh, I had that dry cough too, it'll be over in two days, tops! , and it is not only not finished, but has become productive. Arghhhh!)

It has certainly not been my experience that middle-level managers in parishes who are permanent deacons are usually ignorant, but there are exceptions that prove the rule.

This guy this poor woman had to deal with in her attempt to enter full communion with the Church is wrong enough, and seemingly sure enough of his misinformation that he qualifies as a Church Lady, the sort one usually sees in sensible shoes "facilitating" an "encounter" to "share our stories" with a certificate and everything to show her cred.

I started trying to join RCIA at the church I've been attending about a month ago. Everything was fine until they found out I was married and divorced about 12 years ago. They won't let me attend RCIA until the marriage is annulled. I understand that I can't remarry in the Catholic Church until the annulment is complete, however they won't let me complete RCIA until the annulment is valid, even if that means that I can't go through the classes until next year. I have read up on this and feel as though this is incorrect. Everything I've found online points to me being able to complete RCIA and join the Catholic Church.
The deacon I've most recently spoken with told me that everyone online is wrong and I can't go through their program. I am looking for facts to help me with this. Is there anything in canon law prohibiting me from completing the RCIA program? I am not remarried and have no immediate plans to remarry at this time.  

The Forces of Dimness strike again.

Even if she were planning to re-marry, or even were already re-married, surely the pastoral thing would be to let her go through the process while she waits for a decree of nullity? let her learn, let her grow to love the goodness, truth and beauty of Mother Church, let her hunger for the Eucharist increase!

(Especially since many parishes are draconian about when even Christians of other denominations must start RCIA in order to enter into full communion at the Vigil. Oh, I'm sorry, it's September, we started in August, you'll have to wait to be confirmed two Paschal Vigils from now...)

IIRC, we had several people in Himself's RCIA contingent concurrently working on "annulments", or whose spouses were.
One knew pretty well hers was not going to happen by spring, but she was a joy, so zealous and loving in class (I know, I know, don't call it that....,) very involved with the parish, very faithful with the practice of their children...
There she was at the Vigil that Easter, crying and smiling for the rest of them.
If memory serves, our pastor got permission to confirm her in mid-summer when the decree came through.

Christians, make thing easier on your fellows, not harder!

This may seem contradictory coming from someone who feels as strongly as I do about denying communion to the divorced and remarried without benefit of a finding of nullity for the first marriage - not so.
The processes and protocols that the Church has developed, while man-made, are just and founded in natural law, and preserve the dignity of sacramental marriage.

You should be frightened, horrified at the prospect of receiving the Body and Blood of Christ unworthily.

You should be required to put some effort into a matter of such weight, whether it be the money, the time or the soul-searching that seems most onerous.

You should be willing to make sacrifices, whether it be waiting for communion,  or accepting an unlooked for celibacy.

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