Annulment Question

[Mikenamy01]

I’ll try and be brief, but there are a lot of details:

I was married at age 18 and divorced at age 21.

I re-married at age 28 and was married in a Christian faith church.

My wife and I became interested in the Catholic faith and we went through the RCIA at out local parish. Through this process, I discovered that I had not ever been baptized and entered the process as a Catechumen. My wife and I are very active in the church and community today.

My question is this, do I need to seek an annulment from my original marriage?

 

[Catholic2003]

Mikenamy01:

My question is this, do I need to seek an annulment from my original marriage?

Either an annulment, or one of the Pauline or Petrine privileges. All of these processes involve the diocesan tribunal, so you don’t need to worry about which one right now. Just get the ball rolling by talking to your priest.

 

[cameron_lansing]

Mikenamy,

Your original marriage has to be examined and resolved by some process of the Catholic Church, so that some determination can be made that would lead to making your present marriage valid.

From your post, we do not have enough factual information to say exactly what that process is. It would be inappropriate and possibily harmful to you to attempt to sort it out on an internet forum.

It may involve a privilege of the faith (Pauline or Petrine) or another process that involves the investigation of marital nullity. To do that, we would need a detailed history of the baptism status, form of marriage, and marriage history of your, your former wife (and her former spouses, if any).

Analyzing those details requires that you meet with your parish priest, or other person knowledgeable in Church marriage law whom the parish priest has asked to do this, in person. That individual can make the necessary contacts at the diocese to begin the process that is appropriate to your situation. Usually, but not always, this will be the diocesan tribunal.

Usually the issue of uncovering and how to “resolve” a prior marriage is discussed by those whose facilitate the Christian Initiation of Adults very early on in the process. I am surprised it was not. But we pray that it will be successfully resolved in your situation.