Annulment question if not married in the church, and not while in the church

[Phemie]

My husband divorced his wife 17 years ago… Neither of them were Catholic and were married outside of the Chruch.

My husband and I were not married in the Chruch either. He is not a Catholic, but I am. I don’t think I need an annulment do I?

My husband is not Catholic and doesn’t think he did anything wrong in divorcing his wife since he isn’t Catholic and doesn’t want to be. I want to be a practicing Catholic. We are both in our 60’s now and there is no possibility of children.

Am I still in the Chruch or out of it?

Going solely by what you wrote this would appear to be your situation:

– Your husband’s first marriage is considered valid by the Catholic Church.
– Valid marriages don’t end just because the legal marriage is over.
So, as far as the Church is concerned, your husband is still married to his first wife – unless she has since died.

You, as a Catholic, are bound by the laws of the Church. You broke two: you married a man whom the church considers married to someone else AND you married outside the Church.

So as far as the Church is concerned you are in an invalid marriage. That makes you ineligible to receive the sacraments. But you can try to change the situation and the best start to that is to go meet with your priest and discuss it with him. Your husband will probably have to petition the Marriage Tribunal for a decree of nullity.

 

[Linna]

My husband will never do that. He is not Catholic and doesn’t think he did anything wrong, nor does he feel is is accountable to explain anything to the Catholic Church not being Catholic and all.

 

[kage_ar]

Linna - make an appointment to speak to your Priest. Believe it or not, he has helped other people with the same problem.

Stay close to God, He will give you the grace to come back to the Sacraments. God can even give grace to the man you married and lead him to have his first marriage investigated.