Can I become a Catholic?

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Preciosa_Rosita

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This is my first post here, so I hope I am in the right place.

My story is a little complicated, but please bear with me.

I was baptised, and brought up as an Anglican, although non practising.
I married young, and had a very unhappy marriage for almost 30 years. During that time I always felt I was being called to church but my then husband refused to go.

We divorced 8 years ago.

Later I met someone else, and we decided to get married. The ceremony was scheduled for a civil ceremony but I felt strongly that God was calling me to have this marriage blessed.
I contacted the local Anglican vicar, who met with both of us, asked us lots of questions, and after praying on the matter, said he felt God would allow our remarriage in his church.
We went through a pre marriage course.

We married and shortly afterwards I was confirmed.

3 years ago we moved to Spain, a mainly Catholic country.

We tried several protestant/evangelical churches, but none felt right.

I should mention that the house we chose is 20 feet away from a 17th Century Catholic church.

I felt called to attend this church, and have been regularly attending Sunday Mass for some time now. My level of Spanish is good enough to understand the priest and the service.

The more I attend, and the more I learn about how Protestantism in the UK came about after the Reformation, the more I am called to Catholicism as the one true faith.
Had Henry 8th not wanted to marry Anne Boleyn I would have been born Catholic!

I have learned that many of the Protestant opinions about Catholicism are untrue.

My question is this:-

As I am divorced and remarried would I ever be able to become Catholic? I understand that I would not be able to take part in the Eucharist.

Sorry if this is long…I don´t know who else to ask.
 
Standard answer would be to talk with the local priest.

I can only guess, but I would expect that you would need to go to Catholic Adult Education, and have your marriage blessed (which might require an investigation on the validity of your first marriage).

Rather than worry about the details, just ask the priest.​

I do not know how the Church deals with annulments of marriages outside the Church. The process for Catholics involves a marriage tribunal, which looks for flaws in the inception of the marriage. I believe lack of consent is one - and can be cause by lack of maturity at the time of the marriage. There are others that exist for Catholics (and suspect there may be additional ones that exist for marriages outside the Church).
 
Hi Preciosa,

Yes, everything depends on the validity of your first marriage. You should be talking to a Catholic priest, and I suggest an English-speaking priest who has lived in a country where these situations are frequent. Your average Spanish priest would not be very familiar with cases llke yours. I don’t know if you live in or close to Madrid, but there is an English-speaking Catholic Church in Madrid called Our Lady of Mercy. See ourladyofmercy.info/

A declaration of nullity is granted where it becoms obvious that the conditions of a valid marriage were not present.

We keep you in our prayers.

Verbum
 
chain said:
I do not know how the Church deals with annulments of marriages outside the Church. The process for Catholics involves a marriage tribunal, which looks for flaws in the inception of the marriage.
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It’s the same for non-Catholics. Basically, you would need to have your first marriage reviewed by the tribunal, and if it is found null, then you could have your current marriage blessed and would have no barriers to the church.

There’s more to it than that, but as the previous poster said, the first step really is to talk to a priest. He will be able to guide you with the specifics to your situation.
 
Go to the nearest Catholic Church, or contact the rectory & tell them of your desire to become Catholic, let them take it from there
 
NoWhereMan said:
Go to the nearest Catholic Church, or contact the rectory & tell them of your desire to become Catholic, let them take it from there
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I second this advice. Keep asking until you get answers. Some of the answers may be difficult, but you won’t know where you stand until you ask.
 
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