Last Saturday morning I was accosted by two ladies at the Cathedral. They wanted to speak to the priest and asked if I was he. (Poor things. I am far from being a priest. ) When I said no they asked if I was an ELDER. Immediately bells started going off…. Pentecostals! I again said no, but as the discussion continued, I discovered her true purpose for being there.
She asked me a simple question. If one is married in the Pentecostal faith and one’s husband leaves one to live with another woman, is he committing adultery according to the Catholic Church. It seems that her “mother in law” is a Catholic and never approved of the Pentecostal marriage and did not deem his new relationship as adultery. Basically, she wanted to prove her mother in law wrong and take a jab at those holier than thou Catholics. The only problem is that the truly holy Catholics are so very aware of our sinful nature.
My answer to the lady and her female friend was that sex out of marriage is a sin and that however you paint it, this man is committing a sin.
A priest did speak with them and said more or less the following: If you are not a member of the Catholic faith then the church does not have a say concerning your marriage; If you are baptised in the Catholic church then you are Catholic and fall under the rules of the Catholic church. So you need to marry in the church otherwise you are a sinner; Before the church there was natural law which allowed you to marry by bonding; According to secular law no matter what faith you are you are married under the eyes of the law of the republic.
In summation, Yes, it is adultery according to the law of the land. According to the Catholic church it is not. The church does not recognise the marriage and therefore does not recognise the dissolution of the marriage. He is still having sex out of wedlock. He is sinning against God!
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