As to the title of the thread, “Are Protestant Marriages more nullable than Catholic ones?”, the simple answer is no. People other than Catholics, even the non baptized, are capable of entering valid and binding marriages. An annulment process or other process of the Church would have to examine the particular marriage in question to answer the question in a particular case. A declaration of nullity does not nullify a marriage. It declares that a particular marriage was null from the very beginning due to a defect in the form of marriage, or an impediment to a valid marriage, or a failure to give judicially sufficient consent to marriage.
My question is, can a previously divorced protestant convert to catholicism get an annulment because his previous (all protestant) marriage was conducted in a protestant church? If yes, why?
This suggests the person was not Catholic at the time of the marriage but is now, and I respond on that basis.
If either a Catholic or a non Catholic now seeks to marry in the Catholic Church, he or she has the right to ask a tribunal to investigate that marriage to determine his ability to enter into such a subsequent marriage on the basis of canon 1674 1º.
That canon declares the (ex) spouses to be capable of challenging a marriage. In this case, the now Catholic could clearly do so even without seeking a subsequent marriage. The Protestant, if he or she now seeks a subsequent marriage to a Catholic could do so, and in fact, would have to do so before such a marriage could take place. As canon 1066 supplies, before a Catholic celebrates marriage (to a Catholic or even a non Catholic), it must be evident that nothing stands in the way of its valid and licit celebration.
All marriages are governed by divine - natural law, and only those involving at least one Catholic are additionally governed by Church law (c. 1059) . Only Catholics are required to observe the canonical form of marriage or receive a dispensation from that obligation or marry under certain other conditions which except them from the obligation. Non Catholics when marrying among themselves are not.
Non Catholics have a natural right to marry like every one who is not disqualified by divine law (c. 1058).
Marriage involving two non Catholics requires three things:
- freedom from impediments of divine - natural law, *
- the legitimate, i.e., lawful, manifestation of marital consent, **
- both consent as well as the ability to assume the essential obligations of marriage which arise from that consent (c. 1057). ***
- The impediments of divine law that apply to all people and which ban a valid marriage are the existence of a valid prior bond of marriage and blood relationship in the direct line (parents-children) or the second degree of the collateral line (blood siblings).
**Protestants have no particular form of celebrating marriage required by their ecclesial bodies.
***After people have reached at least adolescence, there is a presumption they know what the essential aspects of marriage are, and possess the capacity to give consent and to assume the essential obligations.
A marriage of Protestants in this situation would be presumed valid (c. 1060), and a tribunal process or other Church process would be needed to establish that the bond of marriage did not arise from the ceremony.
