divorce and the catholic church

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mbolick0612

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hi I am not a catholic but my fiancee is and i want to convert from lutheran to catholic. I am also divorced and want to remarry can someone tell me what the views are on this in the catholic church as far as marrying and converting to catholicism and being divorced?

Michelle
 
mbolick0612 said:
hi I am not a catholic but my fiancee is and i want to convert from lutheran to catholic. I am also divorced and want to remarry can someone tell me what the views are on this in the catholic church as far as marrying and converting to catholicism and being divorced?

Michelle
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Welcome to CAF and we will pray for your future as you search to join the Catholic Church.

Assuming that you were married in the Lutheran church, you would need to apply for and receive an annulment to get married in the Catholic Church. Please talk with a priest about this soon as the process could take a while.
 
Hi.

I think your first stop should be a priest. While you will eventually get the right information here, you will also get opinion. Each marriage case is different, to the point of downright unique. And people make assumptions that may not be true, so you’ll get conjecture, but not what you need to know.

Now, a baptized person of any faith group married to another bapitzed person constitutes a presumed valid marriage. It doesn’t matter if they were married in the Lutheran church or at the courthouse. And then there’s the matter of a possible natural valid marriage, and a sacramental marriage. How can you tell?

See what I mean…You can’t.

If you are really in a good diocese, they even have a web site that deals with the decree of nullity (anullments) and all your questions.

Good luck, and welcome home!
 
OutinChgoburbs; Now, a baptized person of any faith group married to another bapitzed person constitutes a presumed valid marriage. It doesn’t matter if they were married in the Lutheran church or at the courthouse. And then there’s the matter of a possible natural valid marriage, and a sacramental marriage.

I believe it does matter if a person is married in a Lutheren church or a courthouse. In the annulment process the Roman Catholic Church researches the validity of the sacrament of the marriage. A marriage in a courthouse is not considered sacramental. That marriage does however constitute a legal marriage in the eyes of the court. BTW, what is a “natural valid marriage”?
 
3bar17 said:
OutinChgoburbs; Now, a baptized person of any faith group married to another bapitzed person constitutes a presumed valid marriage. It doesn’t matter if they were married in the Lutheran church or at the courthouse. And then there’s the matter of a possible natural valid marriage, and a sacramental marriage.

I believe it does matter if a person is married in a Lutheren church or a courthouse. Well, you’d be wrong. In the annulment process the Roman Catholic Church researches the validity of the sacrament of the marriage. I have a decree of nullity, as well as several semester hours on the subject, and I am telling you, it does not matter if two baptized Christians who were **not **Catholic at the time of the marriage, and are marrying for the first time, marry at the courthouse or in an actual church of another ecclesial community. The Church presumes two bapitzed non-Catholics are sacramentally married. This is why the OP should not be looking for advice here, other than emotional support and prayer, but to a priest. The priest is the starting point for the decree of nullity process. A marriage in a courthouse is not considered sacramental.If you are Catholic, that’s true. If you are not, it’s not. That marriage does however constitute a legal marriage in the eyes of the court. BTW, what is a “natural valid marriage”? Briefly: A natural marriage is a marriage entered into by two people of the opposite gender who are not necessarily baptized, which is a lifelong union guarnateed by exclusive contract, and ends in death. For more information, please consult Annulment: The Wedding That Was. There are also many, many threads here that deal with the questions you stated, if you will simply use the search feature. I do not want to derail the OP’s thread. This is not a debate thread.
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Rule of thumb, the church assumes all marriages are sacramental until proven otherwise. In other words, the church will ask for the facts, and then render a decision based on those facts.

Now, the important thing, don’t let this hold you back from joining an RCIA program at the parish you have chosen. You may have to wait a bit to receive your sacraments, but it will be worth the wait. Also, as far as your engagement, the wait to become catholic will make your marriage a much better one in the long run.

You are in my prayers!
 
RichT said:
Rule of thumb, the church assumes all marriages are sacramental until proven otherwise. In other words, the church will ask for the facts, and then render a decision based on those facts.

Now, the important thing, don’t let this hold you back from joining an RCIA program at the parish you have chosen. You may have to wait a bit to receive your sacraments, but it will be worth the wait. Also, as far as your engagement, the wait to become catholic will make your marriage a much better one in the long run.

You are in my prayers!
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👍 Yes indeed!
 
RichT said:
Rule of thumb, the church assumes all marriages are sacramental until proven otherwise. In other words, the church will ask for the facts, and then render a decision based on those facts.
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No, it assumes that all marriage contracted by non-Catholics is VALID.

The same can’t be said of ALL marriages contracted by Catholics.
 
Definitely do talk to your priest. A little tip I will throw your way though…if neither you nor your ex are or were Catholics at the time that you exchanged vows, you could have a petition for a declaration of nullity heard by a tribunal for another rite. It doesn’t have to be heard by a tribunal for a Latin Rite diocese. A lot of the other rites, such as Maronite or Ruthenian, have tribunals with far fewer cases to hear and can therefore hear your case in a shorter amount of time, 6 months I was told.
 
3bar17… Burbs is right because non catholics are not bound by the same rules (canon law) we are… so if they are baptized… it doesn’t matter where they marry… they are validly married… in the eyes of the Catholic Church. However, if they switch to the Catholic faith BEFORE they marry… they would either have to be married in a Catholic church or get a dispensation to marry somewhere else.
 
Phemie said:
No, it assumes that all marriage contracted by non-Catholics is VALID.

The same can’t be said of ALL marriages contracted by Catholics.
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Thank you. :o This is why the OP needs to go see a priest.
 
Burbs,
Thanks for the info, I’ll check out the book, it sounds like a good resource.
 
3bar17 said:
I believe it does matter if a person is married in a Lutheren church or a courthouse. In the annulment process the Roman Catholic Church researches the validity of the sacrament of the marriage. A marriage in a courthouse is not considered sacramental.
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This is a common misconception, but an inaccurate statement.

Non-Catholics who are baptized are bound by the form of their *own *denomination. If there denomination does not have a required form (like the Catholic Church does) then marriage at the courthouse is a valid form. The marriage between two baptized persons is automatically also a sacrament.
3bar17 said:
BTW, what is a “natural valid marriage”?
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The term “natural marriage” is a marriage where one or both parties are unbaptized. It is called a “natural marriage” because it is not a Sacrament. A natural marriage can be dissolved under certain conditions. A sacramental marriage cannot.
 
BlestOne said:
3bar17… Burbs is right because non catholics are not bound by the same rules (canon law) we are… so if they are baptized… it doesn’t matter where they marry… they are validly married…
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Well, there is an important distinction to make-- and I ran into it on another thread so I am always careful now to make note that the Catholic Church does acknowledge form requirements of other denominations if they have one.

For example, the Orthodox Churches have canonical form requirements. The Church recognizes those. So, an Orthodox who marries outside of Orthodox form at the courthouse is in an invalid marriage as far as the Catholic Church views it in the nullity process.

But, denominations like Lutherans, Methodists, etc, do not have a required form-- so the courthouse would be valid for them.
 
3bar17 said:
OutinChgoburbs; Now, a baptized person of any faith group married to another bapitzed person constitutes a presumed valid marriage. It doesn’t matter if they were married in the Lutheran church or at the courthouse. And then there’s the matter of a possible natural valid marriage, and a sacramental marriage.

I believe it does matter if a person is married in a Lutheren church or a courthouse. In the annulment process the Roman Catholic Church researches the validity of the sacrament of the marriage. A marriage in a courthouse is not considered sacramental. That marriage does however constitute a legal marriage in the eyes of the court. BTW, what is a “natural valid marriage”?
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Sorry, but a Lutheran church is no more consecrated ground than a courthouse is, or a children’s playground, or a garden. Only Catholic Churches are consecrated ground.

A marriage is Sacramental when it takes place between two baptized persons, and if they are both Protestant, then it doesn’t matter where they get married, since obviously they would not be allowed to get married on consecrated ground (that is, in the Catholic Church).
 
Phemie said:
No, it assumes that all marriage contracted by non-Catholics is VALID.

The same can’t be said of ALL marriages contracted by Catholics.
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Allow me to rephrase my statement then. ***We ***should assume all marriages to be valid until proven otherwise. That’s why we should be asking a priest to answer these questions. And I am not saying that every marriage and divorce situation must go before the marriage tribunal. I’m simply saying that we should take these things to the church. And furthermore, if we simply held as a rule of thumb that all marriages were valid until proven otherwise, we might have fewer mis-informed people taking communion when they really shouldn’t be.
 
Hi I am a devout Christian and I will eventually marry my Fiancee but the question I have is although I am not Catholic and want to join the Church and I am divorced do I have to do an annulment to join the Church to be married there

God Bless
Michelle
 
Why are you asking this again when there is already another thread from you on the same topic? I believe this question has been amply answered on the other thread.

BTW, “fiancee” is feminine. “Fiance” is the male equivalent.
 
Michelle,

Congratulations on your engagement and your desire to enter the Catholic Church.

I second all the advice to seek out the clergy of the local parish or the parish your fiance belongs to A.S.A.P. (often it may be a Permanent Deacon, who is also ordained, who handles most of the parish annullments) One it would be good to get connected with the RCIA (Rite of Catholic Initiation for Adults) program. Many parishes programs start in the fall, but they may have informative sessions in the summer as our’s does.

I have been on our RCIA team for many years and it is very painful to see those who desire to enter the church have to wait for the process of annullment to complete because they started too late. Those I have known have handled it with grace in spite of the suffering and have been true examples of patience. None of them have regretted their decisions, but almost always will say they wish they had known to start the process earlier.

I will pray for you and your fiance. God bless!
 
well i am sorry my spelling offends you and i had felt i had worded the previous question wrong why do you feel the need to overpower me in my quest…thank you and God Bless
 
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