Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut. I really do appreciate it. And no, my husband never was Catholic and this is his first (and last

) marriage (we were not exactly spring chickens when we married

)
Here is what I found on Radical Sanation:
Participation
Yes, your marriage can be validated in the Church without your spouse’s participation in the process of validation, provided that his consent to marriage can be demonstrated to continue to be present, which from your statement appears to the be the case. Since you failed to observe canonical form, the canons (1159, paragraph 3; and 1160) require that for validation - the giving of new consent according to canonical form, what most people call “being blessed” - the canonical form must now be followed. This means that both you and your spouse must participate. However, the Code of Canon Law also allows for a process called radical sanation. You should go to see your parish priest and discuss this matter with him. If the parish priest thinks the circumstances are correct, he can ask the Diocesan Bishop to grant a radical sanation which is “the retroactive validation of an invalid marriage … without the renewal of consent granted by the” Diocesan Bishop. Canon 1161 paragraph 1 says that this radical sanation (which means, literally “a healing at the root”) “involves a dispensation … from the canonical form if it had not been observed, as well as a referral back to the past of the canonical effects.” This means that, if granted, the radical sanation would cause your marriage to be held as a valid and sacramental marriage from the day that you entered the civil marriage. Again, please talk to your parish priest.
Answer provided by:
Very Rev. Kevin Michael Quirk, JCD
Judicial Vica