The gentleman I would like to marry is Catholic and widowed after 42 years of marriage. I am a former Catholic who divorced in 1990. Two years ago I joined the Lutheran Church. What will his position be with the Catholic Church if we were to marry - would he not be able to accept the sacraments?

-- Patti Wolff (pattiwolff@charter.net), December 07, 2004

Answers

Provided that you have an annulment of your prior marriage, and are therefore free to marry, there would be no restrictions on him other than the usual requirements in mixed faith marriages - his statement that this marriage will not present an obstacle to his practice of his Catholic faith, and his promise to do all in his power to baptize and raise children of the marriage in the Catholic faith. If he "marries" you without benefit of annulment of your previous marriage, then he would not be able to receive the sacraments, since such an arrangement would constitute cohabitation without benefit of marriage, an ongoing state of objectively grave sin.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 07, 2004.