I have struggled with this the last few years. I was previously married in aprotestant church but my husband was already divorced. I am now happily remarried many years later it was a civil ceremony . My new husbands parents were catholic though he was not brought up in the faith for some reason my uncle ( mums brother) and many aunts uncles cousins are all practising Catholics and I have attended mass several times in the past. I would dearly love to become a catholic but am worried that my divorce would stop me ???
If your first husband was already divorced, your marriage to him may not have been valid - i.e. you were never really married to him in the first place in the eyes of God. His divorce has no meaning in the eyes of God and so he couldn’t actually have married you if he was still married to his first wife.
If the Church recognises that there never was a marriage there, it will grant you an “annulment,” and you would be free to marry your current civil husband in the Catholic Church.
If it is your second husband who was divorced, then things may be more complicated, but it’s still definitely worth discussing with a priest.
In the worst case scenario, if you are validly married to your first husband or your current civil husband is validly married to his previous spouse if he had one, you can
still become Catholic, although you would have to refrain from receiving communion until you were ready to live as brother and sister, as in the eyes of God you would be married to another man or he to another woman.
But even in such a situation there may have been factors that mean there has never been a valid marriage there, and I would be optimistic. From what you’ve said, if it was your first husband who was divorced, there is a good chance the Church will recognise your first marriage as void and you may be able to marry your current civil husband. There may be many factors in the other possible scenarios too, so I wouldn’t delay in discussing this with a priest.
God bless you!
