post divorce QUESTION from Chris on December 29, 2002 Is it wrong in the eyes of the Church for two people who are recently divorced from each other, without annulment, to have sexual relations with each other? Persons in question are practicing Catholics.
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on December 31, 2002 Dear Chris:
Yes, it is sin I believe. Although the couple may still be married in the eyes of the Church sacramentally, the fact that they are divorced civily makes their sexual actions illicit in the eyes of the civil law. It is not marital sex under civil law because under the civil law they are single.
One cannot live as husband and wife under Church law WITHOUT ALSO being properly married under civil law.
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