Annulment question

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Katie1723

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We have some rather interesting discussions at work and this was our latest. I am a “revert” and didn’t want to look stupid so I kept my mouth shut (for once 😉 )
Here goes…If a non catholic is married in front of a J of P and then gets divorced and dates a Catholic and proposes marriage, must he/she get an annulment? I was under the impression that annulments were a “Catholic thing”.

Thanks in advance,
~ Kathy ~
 
All marriages are considered valid by the church until proven otherwise.
 
While a CATHOLIC married by a JP would in all likelihood be able to claim “defect of form”, a NON Catholic marriage, whether by Justice of the peace, captain of a ship, priest, rabbi, minister, etc. is assumed to be VALID in its FORM.

There might be other reasons that marriage would be invalid, but the fact of it being “in front of a Justice of the Peace”, for a NON Catholic, would NOT be a reason.
 
It would depend on the part to whom the non-Catholic was married. If the non-Catholic had married a Catholic before a justice of the peace, then that marriage would be invalid, due to defect of form. Catholics must marry in the presence of a priest or deacon, unless dispensed otherwise by a bishop. Before the non-Catholic could then attempt a second marriage to a Catholic, the first union would need to be declared invalid by a tribunal, but it is a very quick and simple matter of presenting the baptismal certificate of the Catholic party, along with the civil marriage license and divorce decree. This typically takes a month.

If, OTOH, the non-Catholic had previously been married to another non-Catholic, then as non-Catholics they were not bound to the Church’s form, and consequently their marriage is presumed valid until proven otherwise. Marriage enjoys the favor of the law. In this case, the non-Catholic’s first marriage would need to undergo a full tribunal process, just as any Catholic would. This typically takes a year, give or take a month.
 
every marriage situation is unique, the parties would have to approach the priest, have him refer the case to the marriage tribunal of the diocese for a judgement on whether the marriage was valid. All marriages are presumed valid until proven otherwise. speculation about hypothetical cases, or cases involving friends about which only the man and wife know the whole situation, is fruitless.
 
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