A reader writes:
A friend of mine is catholic. He plans to marry a woman who is divorced from a man who abused her.
Okay. She might have grounds of an annulment if the abuse is a product of a fundamental misunderstanding on the part of the former husband about the nature of the marriage commitment.
She was married in a Baptist church and they don’t have annulments in the Baptist Church.
Wouldn’t matter if they did. The Church only honors its own annulments since nobody else applies the same standards that it does to this situation.
They have asked several priests and they say nothing can be done. That seems wrong.
It sure does.
If she were catholic and it is a marriage that would be given an annulment, shouldn’t the Church be able to grant some kind of annulment to her since her church won’t or at least recognize it somehow so they can be validly married?
It certainly can do this. The mere fact that the lady in question is not a Catholic does not prevent her from having a Catholic marriage tribunal examine the marriage and determine whether or not it was valid. Catholic marriage tribunals hear the cases of divorced individuals seeking to marry Catholics all the time.
It’s hard for me to imagine that the priests they talk to were ignorant of this point, it is so common in parish life. My suspicion is that there was a misunderstanding of some kind–that the question wasn’t put to them in a manner that would elicit the desired information.
I suggest that she simply call a local parish, state that she is a non-Catholic hoping to marry a Catholic and that she needs to pursue the annulment process. They should be able to help her get the paperwork needed to begin this.
That being said, there are no guarantees that her first marriage really was null, or that it can proven to be null. As a result, she should not be making any kind of definite wedding plans (with the Catholic gentleman or anyone else) until it can be shown that she is free to marry. Christ was rather strong on this point (Mark 10:11-12).
Hope this helps, and God bless!
I have a marriage question that perhaps you can answer–I was raised Catholic, and drifted away from regularly practicing during my college years. Now several years later I find myself drifting back. In the meantime I was married, outside of the Church. I obviously don’t take communion right now, but I’m not even sure what status, if any, my marriage has in the Church’s eyes. Any knowledge you might be able to share would be greatly appreciated.
You may want to e-mail to Jimmy to ensure that he sees the question.
Take with a grain of salt:
It sounds like you did not formally leave, so the Church considers you bound by marriage laws. Your current marriage is therefore invalid for the want of form.
Your marriage could be convalidated — some details here but you definitely want to talk with someone more knowledgable than me.
I am Catholic. My first husband died. I remarried a man in a civil ceremony, who was divorced, but married in the Brethren faith. Does he need to get his marriage annulled by the Catholic Church in order for us to be married in the Catholic Church.
Yes, your husband’s first marriage must be found null for you to be married in the eyes of the Church. This would be the case regardless what faith or tradition your husband was married in.
The main question as regards your husband’s previous faith/tradition is whether he and his putative first wife were both validly baptized Christians. If either or both of them was not validly baptized, then the first marriage would be a natural union rather than a matrimonial sacrament, and that would greatly simplify the situation. I believe the annulment would essentially be a documentary process, i.e., a matter of going through the motions.
However, if both were validly baptized Christians, then their marriage would be presumed sacramental and thus indissoluble, and the annulment hearing would be essentially the same as for divorced Catholics.
AFAIK, the Church of the Brethren practices water baptism using the correct Trinitarian formula. If your husband and his first wife were both members, presumably they were validly baptized, and their marriage would thus be presumed sacramental until/unless the tribunal found otherwise.
I was a US Navy sailor and married a Phillipino lady in 1973, who was Catholic. I also, was Catholic. We were married by an Irish missionary priest in the Phillipines. I was unable to bring her home to the United States. She was unable to get a Visa to come to the United States, for some reason. It was because of the Marcos reign in the Phillipines. They kept wanting more money and I was not able to do it. She had the marriage annulled in the Phillipines. I re-married a non-Catholic and years later, received a call from a New York priest asking if our marriage had ever been consumated. I told him that it had not been. The priest told me that my ex-wife, Phillipinio wife wanted to re-marry and wanted to get an annulment from the church. I later received a copy of the annulment. The second wife that I married was married to me for 27 years. We divorced and I am now wanting to marry in the Catholic church. My fiance’ is Catholic and lost her husband 2 years ago. I have talked to my local priest and they have tried to retrieve records, but just can’t seem to find anything. In order to be married by a priest, my fiance’ and I have been told that we have to find out about the annulment, which we are having a hard time doing. Also, does my second wife and my divorce have to be annulled since it was not a Catholic wedding? Please respond, as we are having so much difficulty finding out any facts. Thank you, Michael
Dear Michael
I suggest you to send the question directly to Jimmy, through the e-mail address linked on this page’s upper left corner.