Civil Marriage Valid?

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Rgonz71

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Hello.

I am a new Catholic just finishing up RCIA. I was never baptized and 20+ yrs ago married an unbaptized woman in a civil ceremony. We married young, basically forced to by our parents because we had a child out of wedlock. The marriage lasted a couple yrs and we inevitably divorced. Was that marriage considered valid? I am hoping to marry again so I’d like to know what I would need to do it right this time. Thanks
 
The best person to talk with is your pastor. He will be able to ask the appropriate questions about your particular circumstances and give you an informed answer.

As a general rule, the Catholic Church recognizes civil marriages among non-Catholics. But whether your marriage was valid will depend on many factors. Your baptismal status may also play a part.

Short answer: talk with your pastor.
 
Rgonz71 said:
The marriage lasted a couple yrs and we inevitably divorced. Was that marriage considered valid? I am hoping to marry again so I’d like to know what I would need to do it right this time. Thanks
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Please talk with your pastor and begin an inquiry into the marriage. To marry in the Catholic Church you will need to be declared free to marry. That will require an investigation into your prior marriage. As both of you were unbaptized at the time, and also had the element of coercion due to a pregnancy, there are several avenues and options that can be explored regarding validity of the marriage or dissolution of the natural bond.

Please bring this to the attention of your pastor and work with him and with the diocesan marriage tribunal. It is best to do this now, before you’ve met someone you become interested in.

Welcome and congratulations on your baptism!
 
If you are just finishing up with RCIA why haven’t you spoke with the RCIA director about your marriage situation? This is one issue I have with some RCIA programs. When I went through RCIA there was a whole section on marital status. When I went to my initial meeting with the directors we discussed my status and what the options were. I knew day one what I needed to do. Not in great detail but since I had two prior marriages and was not married (civilly) at the time, I would need to start a petition if I wanted to marry in the future.

Some times I see programs that don’t want to touch the marriage issue, thinking it would drive away potential converts. It is a delicate issue and needs to be address in a kind and compassionate way but it should be discussed well before someone is ready to finish RCIA.
 
Well, to be fair, previous marriages do not affect everyone that goes through RCIA. It affects only a percentage, and is the reason perhaps it is not covered for all in any great depth.
 
I didn’t mean it was covered in a class setting but on a 1x1 basis. When completing the application there is a section on marriage. Based on the answers given the RICA director will cover it during the initial interview. They will sort out who needs to file a petition in order to be able to go through at Easter.

Everything about a marriage case should be confidential and never discussed in a group setting.
 
Rgonz71 said:
basically forced to by our parents
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A marriage, per Catholic canons, is not valid if under grave fear:
Force or Grave Fear

Canon 1103. A marriage is invalid if it is entered into due to force or grave fear inflicted from outside the person, even when inflicted unintentionally, which is of such a type that the person is compelled to choose matrimony in order to be free from it.

The necessity of determining the will is present in this canon as in so many others already discussed. To avoid physical or psychological force or coercion, a person chooses marriage. Such force would necessarily be grave, since it takes away the freedom to think and will rationally. This gravity could be objective (the threat of death) or subjective (emotional disturbance created by psychological manipulation). The threat must come from outside, as opposed to one’s own conscience, and it must be the principal cause of consent. In the case of the reverential fear which children ought to have for their parents or a subordinate for a superior of another kind, to invalidate the consent there must be actual coercion of the person by the parent or superior which is experienced as such, the well-founded fear of earning their grave and lasting displeasure if marriage is refused and the grave fear must actually be the cause of the consent. An example would be the coerced marriage of an unwed mother by her parents, if the other conditions are met.
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https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/marital_consent.htm
 
That should be a meeting that takes place very, very early in the process.
 
When I went through RCIA I had to complete a questionnaire and then schedule a 1x1 meeting before RCIA started. During the meeting we went over the questionnaire including my marital status. They told me what I should do, which was to go through the process of filing a petition even though I was divorced and had no plans to remarry.

I think it should be part of every RCIA program so things can be taken care of.
 
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I’ve volunteered for and worked at parishes for a couple of decades. This is part of every Instruction program I’ve encountered.
 
The problem is that as non-Christians, they would not be subject to canon law, but only the natural law (and any applicable civil law). For a marriage to be invalid under the natural law by reason of duress, it’s necessary that either the duress was so strong as to abolish the use of reason (a rare situation), or that it was both grave and unjustly inflicted*. Social pressure to marry the mother of one’s children is hardly unjust.

The OP should speak with his pastor and/or the people running RCIA, but the Pauline privilege will likely be the simpler route.

*And this is a disputed point, unless the Holy See has issued a decision since Fr. Prummer’s Handbook was published:

 
In 1986 Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law determined that Can. 1103 of the 1983 CIC could be applied to non-Catholic marriages (which means marriages since 1983).
 
The most simple answer is to talk to your pastor about it directly.
 
Vico said:
Pontifical Commission for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law
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Whether the Norm Expressed in Canon 1103 is of Natural Law Or of Positive Law By David Sereno, Gregorian Biblical BookShop, 1997
ISBN 86-7652-751-6
 
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