All Comments on 'Holy Matrimony'

Another 5/5 Stars!

I am in my seventies. I met many people who lived this kind of life in a very Catholic city where I grew up. Especially as a young man,visiting relatives of the girls I knew,the couple would sound us out and begin to tell tales about the abstinent life that married couples had to live. And,in work,on Friday afternoons, one fellow would come round with condoms for the married men to buy,cheap. The Catholic men would not buy them,as they were forbidden. I saw all this coming toward me. A life of unbelievable misery and frustration,but the power and attraction of young girls is impossible to describe,and I found myself about to marry a Catholic girl,and myself promising a priest that I would not prevent my children from a Catholic education. The priest did not insist that we had to follow the Catholic rules. Just as well,the girl in question was deeply infused as were all her family and relatives. Anyway,we were soon to be married and The Pill was causing a huge stir. The younger generation took it up enthusiastically and their parents melted as the new age dawned. And so, I had nearly thirty years of happy marriage with lots of sex and total freedom from worry unimaginable to Catholic and non Catholic couples only a few years earlier. My wife eventually found somebody else,because we had discovered seperate interest,and she bonded more with a man with her interest. They are very happy. Now,in Poland and other parts,we see the rise of opinion that will bring back the power of religion,with their schools supported and their opinions factored into laws on access to abortion,which will itself increase if The Pill is taken away. I really do feel that I lived in a golden time,between periods of huge ignorance. The writer has given us a vivid snapshot of what was,and still is,a realty to many people in the world. Clearly one with an experience more vivid than mine. So glad that I read this.

Of course, I was raised Catholic. I consider myself multiply lapsed. However, my ex was considering converting and we asked our parish priest about sex before we could get married in the church, about a year off. Mortal sin and I couldn't confess it if I didn't seriously plan not to do it again. This was about 2000. We continued to go to church, but of course, I didn't take communion or go to confession.

It's nice to have some organized religion in your life, especially with kids. I'm older now and I'll probably never have sex with someone else again, but this story made me very sad.