Quote:
Originally Posted by Luanne Russo
Although the Mormon Church has not practiced polygamy for over a hundred years, when many people think of “ Mormons,” they still think of men with multiple wives. In today’s Church, however, people who practice plural marriage are excommunicated. The Mormon Church does not endorse breaking the law, and polygamy was ruled illegal that more than a hundred years ago
From the Mormon church web site. |
Absolutely right. Very rigid rules, not unlike the ones the Catholics have about marriage. For instance, Catholics who divorce cannot be married again in the church. Because marriage is sacred, 'till death do us part.
Except for the little loophole called annulment. This can happen after a nine to eighteen month investigation to determine if the previous marriage was actually "sacramental" (in other words, whether one or both parties had their fingers crossed behind their backs). If the investigation determines that the marriage wasn't really a marriage even though the people were married, then there can be a subsequent marriage in the Catholic church. Anecdotally, I am told that money, sometimes lots of it, can have a significant influence on the ruling of the tribunal that decides all this.
Last year we went to a Catholic wedding where the annulment had failed to come through. "How could there be a Catholic marriage with no annulment?" one asks. Well, where there's a will, there's a way. They closed off the altar, didn't let the happy couple near it, did a simple exchange of vows in front of the locked railing, and sent them off to the reception. See, apparently the invitations had all been mailed assuming the annulment would come through. When it didn't, alternate "arrangements" were made. Dear me, dear me.
It is well beyond my pay grade to unravel the ins and outs of how a guy who's a serial adulterer working on his third marriage and who is a Catholic convert stands with regard to all this. But there's an old saying that "when money talks, nobody walks." That's probably all we need to know.
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