When I went through RCIA in 2006-07, we learned that the church now recognizes most marraiges as valid. As a Protestant, I was married by a Justice of the Peace. We later divorced. However, if I wanted to marry again, I would have to first get an annullment because the church says I was legally married. The stance is that if it is accepted by other churches as a valid marriage, then the Catholic church says an annulment is needed before remarrying.
yes, i could begin the annulment process now. i haven’t gotten into how much it cost, but it has been 28 years since the divorce. a divorce is a death, so who wants to bring up old memories and to me, going through the annulment is going to cause a lot of things to resurface that i had put to rest years ago. frankly, i am not sure i want to have to relive all of that again. it was very painful. they want names of family and friends to question and ask i guess to corroborate what you have said were the reasons for the divorce and why would i want to bother the few friends remaining from those years with the Church contacting them and most of my family is deceased. my divorce was long ago. i have not been in a relationship since. people move on with their lives and the Church should recognize that.
People around the world risk their very lives to remain true to the Catholic Church founded by Christ. Trust me - I understand emotional pain and the desire not to relive bad events from the past. Forgive me if I sound insensitive. It is not on purpose, I really truly don’t understand why even emotional pain should be enough to leave the Church.
The purpose of the annulment process is not about why you got divorced. The tribunal will investigate what happened before and at the time of your marriage. I was never asked about anything that happened in my marriage, nor about why were decided to get divorced. The questions are generally about each person’s maturity, attitudes, and level of commitment at the time of their marriage.
Puzzleannie is right – there are many, many threads about this in the Sacraments forum, and this is really where this discussion belongs. Thanks to everyone for their patience with this rather lengthy sidetrip.
This statement shows a real lack of understanding regarding Church teaching on marriage.
Usually people speak of “leaving” the Catholic Church or Faith. However they actually never took the specific steps required to formally leave the Catholic Church/Faith. They simply stopped practicing and attending the Catholic Church, this does not mean that they left. Most likely you were still techinically still Catholic the last 20 years. Therefore you most likely did not validly Marry according to Catholic Canon Law. You would need to have the Marriage looked into and determined to be invalid.
I don’t know what you are responding to. 7sorrows said that her marriage was civil so not sacramental. If they were both baptized the marriage is presumed valid and thus sacramental and that’s the teaching 1ke was referring to.
I know it’s confusing. What I meant to say is that it doesn’t matter if the marriage was in the church or not. The Catholic church requires an annulment from a legal marriage and trying to squirm out of getting an annulment by saying it wasn’t sacrimental won’t work. If a person was legally married, he/she must get it annulled in order to marry in the church.
God’s plan is really simple: one man and one woman, for life, no exceptions!
My understanding is that as two Protestants your marriage was valid. Since you became a Catholic you would now need an annulment to remarry now as a Catholic. Annulment isn’t required for the Protestant party. It seems that the Church doesn’t help new converts which was my point in my first post when referring to my future son in law who had been a pagan and then became Catholic. His first marriage was valid and he’d require an annulment before marrying again.
That is my thought, also. It does get confusing when mixing up Protestant and Catholic practices.
I am speaking here from almost complete ignorance, but I think that the fact your ex-husband had been married before in a Protestant church might, in fact, be a very important factor in determining whether or not your marriage to him was valid. As others here have pointed out, check with a priest or deacon to be sure.
I know. I did get to thinking although I’m not considering remarrying. I am curious however. Since a Protestant marriage is recognized, but a divorce is not, then maybe I was never really married?
