The Church is able to treat 2nd marriages after a first non-sacramental marriage, differently to how it regards a 2nd marriage after a first sacramental marriage. An annulment becomes more of a formality in recognition of a deficient aspect at the time of the ceremony ie faith in the efficacy of the sacraments. The key to that privilege is to allow faith to grow towards full communion with the Church.
Not actually true. What you describe is a defect of form, which renders a marriage void, it did not happen., which is NOT the same thing as a non-Sacramental marriage. Those ARE valid and recognized by the Church.
I confess I’m not an expert in the the legal definitions of validity and nullity. If a non-Catholic Christian married in a non-Catholic Christian Church… divorces and remarries and then seeks to convert to Catholicism… are they in the same position as a Catholic who has married in the Catholic Church, divorces and remarries civilly and then seeks to return the Church? Or are they regarded differently with regards to the potential for full communion?
They are considered to be the same. Even two atheists who marry in front of a judge are considered to have valid ( but non-Sacramental) marriage.
Really those are two different views of the problem. Validity talks to if a marriage actually took place. A declaration of nullity is the Church declaring that a marriage was invalid at the time marriage consent was exchanged. The whole purpose of a marriage tribunal is to determine if a particular marriage was valid or invalid.
So technically divorced and remarrieds from other Churches or civil marriages, could also be denied annulment through the Catholic tribunal, thus preventing conversion to a Catholic sacramental life?There IS one twist to all of this
Imagine if Bob converts and is Baptized while married to Sue. Sue is SO upset over his conversion that she leaves Bob,
Bob can petition an ecclesial court to have the marriage bond broken. If the court (not tribunal) grants that, Bob would be free to marry Mary.
That is called the Pauline Privilege ( after 1 Cor 7
canonlawmadeeasy.com/2013/04/04/what-is-the-pauline-privilege/
That can only be invoked if both parties were initially unbaptized, and the conversion was the reason for the abandonment.
Yes. Every year I was involved with RCIA we would have 3 or 4 couples that were not able to continue in RCIA because they had prior marriages and we’re not willing to go through an investigation into the validity of their prior marriages.
Sorry, I’m not sure what you are asking. Do you mean if a non catholic couple marries with an intent to exclude children? If so, then that could be grounds for a declaration of nullity. Children are considered part of God’s divine plan for marriage so that requirement is universal to any couple that gets married regardless of their religious affiliation. My apologies if I misunderstand the nature of your question.
No, I’m not talking about those who won’t go through the process… I’m talking about those that are examined for null status and denied. So those who married in other Christian Churches, were divorced and subsequently remarried… who apply for examination of the first marriage with the view to having their new marriage made right in the Church.
It s ok. I have said already I know of only two annulments in all my life,just in case.
Yes. If their first marriage is found to be valid then they are in the same boat as a Catholic that remarries while still in a valid marriage. This is one of the biggest sadness that comes from protestants embracing divorce. That being said it is possible that they did not enter a valid marriage because they accept divorce as a possibility. Even at that they still need to have the marriage investigated and abide by the findings of the tribunal.
All catholic,I forgot to say.
Okay, that makes it clearer. Wether they have children or not does not directly impact the vallidity of the marriage. So yes, if a couple has children their marriage could still be declared null.
Get it ! Thanks.
Yes, as Usige mentioned, a tribunal must look at the first marriage, regardless of what faith community it came from, or even if it was done outside of any faith ( like my hypothetical situation). All those marriage bonds are considered just as valid as any Catholic marriage, and are looked at with the same level of rigor.