As you work with your priest during this time of preparation for marriage, you will speak with him about many issues. But the Church is particularly concerned about cohabitation because the practice is so common today and because, in the long run, it is causing great unhappiness for families in the Church. This may be why most couples who live together before marriage find married life difficult to sustain for very long.
The Church does not invent laws. It passes on and interprets what God has revealed through the ages. No one in the Church has the right to change what Jesus has taught. To do so would be to deprive people of saving truths that were meant for all time. Our Christian faith teaches that a sexual relationship belongs only in marriage.
Sex outside of marriage shows disrespect for the sacrament of marriage, the sacredness of sex, and human dignity. We have good reasons for living together before our wedding. The Church cares for you as a parent cares for a beloved son or daughter. Think about it:.
Why does the Church interfere in the sex lives of couples? Sex is intensely private and personal, but it also has deep moral and social dimensions. Sex works as a primary bonding agent in families and the family is the building block of society.
Sexual rights and wrongs influence the health and happiness of individuals, families and neighborhoods. The Church, of course, wishes to safeguard the family and society. But, more than that, the Church wishes to safeguard your relationship with your future spouse and with God. Sexual sins, then, are not just between a man and a woman, but between the couple and God.
