by Stephanie Davis

Created on: October 10, 2009

The Catholic Church needs several reforms, many of them involve unscriptural teachings and unhealthy attitudes on various aspects of human life. I entered the RC IA process in the summer of 2006, dissatisfied with what I had learned in the Protestant churches I had previously attended. I had often heard many anti Catholic sermons preached from the pulpit, yet they really did not sway me. I went through the "Right of Acceptance" as a catechuman . I was starting on the journey of formal religious instruction that would hopefully lead to me being baptized and welcomed into the Roman Catholic Church at the next Easter Vigil. I was estatic, and quickly embraced the most conservative teachings of the church. It was about three monthes into this journey that I was informed that since my husband was married before that his two previous marriages had to be annulled through the church and I could not be baptized until either they were finalized or my husband and I agreed to abstain from sexual relations and live as "brother and sister". It was during this process that I began to question the other teachings as well.

The Catholic Church is ripe for Reform and needs to not have splits, but to look at the Bible and change the unbiblically based aspects of their theology, mainly having to do with divorce, remarriage, and human sexuality in marriage. The concept of forgiveness of all sins prior to conversion would be included in this as well and is tied into the divorce aspect. Here are some of the things that I would change about the Catholic Church:

1. Divorce. The Roman Catholic Church strictly prohibits divorce and remarriage under any circumstances even in cases of adultery , desertion and cruelty. This clearly goes against the teachings of Christ himself when he states in Matthew 5 that divorce and remarriage in cases of marital unfaithfulness was permissible. In the epistles it is also stated that desertion by an unbeliever would be an acceptable reason for divorce and remarriage. It would be logical that physical and emotional abuse would be a form of desertion as well and only an unbeliever would do such a thing. Despite the Biblical allowances for divorce under these circumstances, the Catholic Church prefers to go by their own man made rules on this subject rather than the words of Christ himself. Of course their is a loophole with the annulment process, but to obtain one takes a miracle and can be spiritually, emotionally and in some case financially draining.

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