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Author Topic: Does a potential spouse have a right to know sɛҳuąƖ history before marriage?  (Read 112163 times)

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Änσnymσus

  • Guest
If you are so inclined to hire someone to spy on her then she should not marry YOU. I would never trust a man who had such little trust in me. Better not to marry at all. Or find another man.
Sounds like there's something in your past that you wouldn't want a suitor to know about. Hm.........

OP here. I was mistaken about the authorship. It was not a Fr. Lord pamphlet but rather QUESTIONS YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN ASK BEFORE MARRIAGE by Donald F. Miller, C.Ss.R.

Imprimi Potest: John N. McCormick, C.Ss.R, Provincial, St. Louis Province, Redemptorist Fathers November 20, 1961
Imprimatur: + Joseph Cardinal Ritter, Archbishop of St. Louis, November 24, 1961

Here is the relevant text:
I can't help but notice that this priestly advice consistently includes warnings about men who demand or insist to know the past of their potential spouses.  I assume that this would also apply to women who would do the same (although they do not say this explicitly). It seems to me that if one were to willingly offer this information without provocation that would be a much different scenario.  


I think we also need to keep in mind that these are opinions, and I suspect that different priests might have different opinions on how to proceed.  Not all moral questions have black and white/cut and dried answers.  In fact, even these priests say there are exceptions and that they leave room for them.  The McHugh and Callan example above also seems to hint at a different answer depending upon whether the person would use the past information against the other.   


Whether a woman can can form a strong emotional bond should be clear from her behavior over a few dates.

So from that perspective, I don't think inquiring about virginity is needed.

Änσnymσus

  • Guest
Does a woman have a right to know that her fiance has same sex attraction but not acted on it?

Does a woman have a right to know that her fiance has had relationships with men in the past?  She could be exposed to AIDS or other disease by marrying him.  


Offline Matthew

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Does a woman have a right to know that her fiance has same sex attraction but not acted on it?

Does a woman have a right to know that her fiance has had relationships with men in the past?  She could be exposed to AIDS or other disease by marrying him.  

Yes on both counts. Dishonesty -- INCLUDING HIDING OF IMPORTANT, RELEVANT FACTS with a bearing on the future -- even if it doesn't invalidate the marriage contract, certainly sets the marriage up for FAILURE nevertheless. You can have a failed marriage -- one or both spouses living alone, separated, no longer intimate, hating each other, etc. -- even if a marriage is "valid" which just means the contract was validly created (and thus can't be dissolved except by the death of one of the spouses).

The 2 priests quoted are only talking about the Letter of the Law. They aren't talking about what is PRUDENT, ADVISABLE, or what one SHOULD DO if they want a happy marriage.

Even pagans and non-Catholics understand the truth that A marriage must be built on trust.  Are Catholics to be worse than pagans? God forbid.

Don't think you can hide something like a Same Sex Attraction, loss of virginity, criminal record, pedophilia, etc. from your spouse without any consequences. Especially in this day and age of the Internet. What will your spouse do, say, and react when she finds out YOU LIED TO HER? Certain sins or events scar a person for life; they make a person "damaged goods". A spouse should be aware they are making a life-long contract with damaged goods. Anyone who denies this is IGNORANT, NAIVE, and/or A FOOL -- no exceptions.

Grace does not re-create or wipe out Nature. It builds on Nature. If Grace totally renovated and overwrote Nature, then there would be no effects of Original Sin seen among baptized persons in the world today!

If a spouse finds out that you hid something grave, a separation is NOT out of the question. In fact, I would advise it in all cases! If your spouse hid something serious like that from you -- something which affects your future family, marriage, marital relations, ability to provide for the family, etc. -- a wise spouse will not forgive them but insist on permanent separation of house and board (live separately, but not remarry).