Ch 5: Pardon
Through a timely death, my parents are publicly exonerated but privately the secrets become more complicated to unravel.
Although my parents were legally married in Colorado, that didn’t matter to the Catholic Church. Because Dad was divorced, they lived in sin. That meant that as long as Dad’s first wife was alive, the Church barred them from receiving the sacraments. As a result of this, my parents faced public humiliation at Mass every Sunday. I can still see them both, all dressed up in their Sunday best—Dad with a sport jacket and tie and Mom with a dress, white gloves, and a veil poised gently over her graying hair. After kneeling through the consecration of the bread and wine, they would sit back in the pew, lift the kneeler up in front of them so people could pass, and wait. Others around them stood, made their way out of the pew, walked up to the communion rail with hands folded and heads bowed, took the host, which according to Catholic tradition had become the body of Christ, into their mouths, and returned to their seats.
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