Dating and legal seperation

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emmy1970 said:
How about in this scenario…The man was married in the Catholic church, divorced (not annulled) and then remarried in a Christian marriage. He is now getting a divorce from the second invalid marriage and the first wife is deceased. Isn’t he technicallly a widow in the eyes of the Catholic Church…Not to mention the second marriage was not only invalid due to no annulment, but the soon-to-be-ex didn’t share with him that the pre-wedding councelor had told her that he wasn’t ready to marry because of unresolved issues from the first marriage. (This fact came out in marriage counceling a few years into the rocky marriage). Is he married or is he not married in the eyes of the Catholic Church?
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Is the man Catholic?
 
Happy3 said:
Is it wrong in the eyes of the Catholic church to date a person who is legally separated but not yet divorced?
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Divorced is non-issue unless we’re talking about a Catholic dating a civilly married atheist. What matters is whether that person is sacramentally married or not and, in the case of non-Christians (because non-Catholic Christians can be validly sacramentally married too), whether they are validly married or not. You can’t date someone who is married sacramentally or even someone in a valid but not sacramental marriage. Please talk to your priest about the details of the situation.
 
Happy3 said:
Is it wrong in the eyes of the Catholic church to date a person who is legally separated but not yet divorced?
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Yes, because the person is considered married by the Church and thus not free to date.

With regard to some of the other posts in the thread, marital dissolution via the Pauline/Petrine Privileges are NOT annulments. The Privileges dissolves a valid marriage, whereas an annulment simply states the marriage was not valid to begin with.

With regard to divorces, the Catholic most definitely recognizes civil divorce and certain of its legal implications. What the Church does not recognize is that the civil divorce dissolves a valid marriage.
 
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