We go now to Vince in Cape Girardeau, Missouri listening on 89.1 FM, Vince, you
are on with Trent Horn. Thank you so much for taking my call. Trent, my question is
this...let me preface with, what I'm rejecting is the apparent contradiction
in the application of the Catholic morality code. I came into the Church in
2014 with an invalid marriage. My wife had been married previously and I had
not, and we got married before I came into the Church some years before. I was
told initially that I couldn't come fully into the Church because of the
marriage and so I asked the priest, "Does it matter if I've been living in
abstinence?" And he said, "Yes that does, if you're living as brother and sister you
can come into the Church." So I get that. Well, this year in January, I had one of
my RCIA teachers asked me if I would like to go to a Cursillo movement in
March, and I said absolutely, I was excited and it thrilled, and then when I
sold out the paperwork and then, you know, he was going to be my sponsor, he said,
"Well, the priest has said that you can't go because of your marriage, even
though I'm still living abstinently from my wife. So the most important thing,
coming into the Church, is allowable and acceptable; however for me to utilize the...
like the Cursillo movement, the tools I guess, so to speak, to
advance my faith, and help me be able to share my faith, I mean I can't take
part in that, because of the invalid marriage in which I'm still living
abstinently, so do I stay where I'm at, and have conjugal relations,
and just go to confession every week, or, you know, what--I am rejecting the
application of...it's not consistent. I can come into the Church but
I can't go to a Cursillo movement. Can you help me with that? I think I can, though I
do commend you, Vince, as people have been discussing in the Catholic blogosphere
and news a lot lately about those individuals who are in invalid marriages,
and speaking about whether they can receive Communion or not, and whether we
can expect anyone to live as brother and sister, to live chastely if they're in an
invalid marriage, and many people just say, "Well, it can't be done." Well you, my
friend, are living proof it most certainly CAN be done, and so I commend
you for that, and to--in this day and age when people think that God's grace is...
its power has no standing, can't hold a candle to the power of the sexual urge,
it's very very sad, even when some Catholics say, "Well, yeah yeah, there's
grace, yeah yeah yeah, but look, you can't expect people to live this way." Yes
you can, 'cause as St. Paul says in the letter to the Philippians, through Christ--
"I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me." So don't give
that up, continue to let God's grace in your heart and to live the moral life
you are living now. And it's wonderful to see that, to uphold the beauty and
dignity of marriage in what you're doing. So I would say it's definitely--it
makes no sense to say--I mean the only argument one could give is if, maybe if
you were a leader in this program, and there's a worry about about scandal or
something like that, but I would say that if you have made this
commitment to living chastely, that shouldn't be an impediment at all to
taking part in a retreat or any kind of other spiritual practice. Now, is the
priest who said this, Vince, the same priest you spoke with about coming into
the Church in the first place, or a different priest? No, actually, it's not.
Since I came into the Church there has been a changing of the guard, so to speak,
so, yeah the priest that has told me that I can't go to the Cursillo movement is a
different priest than the one who said that I could come into the Church under
the condition of chastity. It reminds me of what happened to the Israelites in
the Exodus. It says in the book of Exodus, you know, Joseph,
you know, a Hebrew, saved Egypt, and all the Jews were welcome to be there, and
the book of Exodus says, well, then there was a new Pharaoh that came into town
who didn't know Joseph, and then everything fell apart for the Hebrews
after that and they were enslaved. So here's another priest that's come along and may
not be as familiar with your situation, you know, so I would recommend stay
living the chaste, moral life you're living, and understand that in living
this life, the devil is going to throw all kinds of temptations at you,
including temptations to be frustrated or want to give that up, through other
Catholics who are not understanding, so I pray that you don't give in to that
temptation. And to find a resolution here, you may want to appeal to go to maybe a
larger regional director for the Cursillo movement, or a representative
from the diocese, from the office of marriage and family, for example, in your
own diocese, to go one rung up and say, "Hey, here's my situation, I really want to
do this, and the person involved here isn't understanding. Can you help me?" It's
just similar to how we would resolve an issue anywhere else. That might be what I
would recommend, but I'd also recommend to keep praying and stay strong in the
face of temptations like these, to want to kind of give up in frustration, so do
you see what I'm saying here? I do. And you have been helpful, and you've given
me a resource and I so much appreciate it, and I listen to the show
often, a Catholic channel every day basically, so, and it has been very
helpful and I appreciate you, Trent, thank you so much. No problem. Stay strong, God
bless, my friend Vince, have a good one.