Can people with annulments get remarried in the Church?

[hambea]

My friend is forty years old, has lived a true Catholic life, and recently met a gentleman who was briefly married through the Church for two months. He was granted an annulment due to deceit and infidelity. He is sad because he can not offer my friend a marriage through the Catholic Church. His marriage occurred in Mexico and he was told that he wouldn’t be able to marry through the Church again. Is this so? If so, then what would be the benefit of the annulment?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Of course those who have been granted annulments by the Church may remarry. I suspect that there is one of two situations going on in this case.

• Your friend’s romantic interest may have been granted an annulment by the civil government. This is not the same thing as an annulment granted by the Church. For a Catholic to marry again in the Church while a putative spouse still lives, he must be granted an annulment by the Church. Civil annulments do not count in the eyes of the Church.
• Or, if this person was granted an annulment by the Church, he may have been told that he may not be allowed to remarry again in the Church without specific permission by the Church to do so. When the parties to an ecclesially-annulled marriage demonstrate extraordinarily poor judgment or immaturity, their annulments are sometimes granted with the provision that they must have permission from the Church before marrying again. This doesn’t mean they can’t ever marry again in the Church; only that they must petition for permission to do so.
  I recommend to your friend that she set aside any romantic interest in or relationship with this man until he sorts out his own first marriage and regularizes his status in the Church. I cannot recommend that she involve herself in trying to help him with these matters in the hopes that she may at some point marry him herself.