Do we REALLY need an annulment?

[puzzleannie]

Okay here’s what’s going on. I am Catholic. My fiance isn’t Catholic and his ex wife wasn’t Catholic. They were married by a judge, not in a church. Do my fiance and I really need to go through an annulment process even though his previous marriage had nothing to do with the Catholic church?

you really need to visit your priest and lay out all the facts of all previous marriages, including the baptismal status of the parties, and circumstances that pertained at the time of the marriage(s) which may have rendered free full consent impossible or unlikely. If it is necessary to submit this (those) marriages to the canon law tribunal of the diocese for a judgement on their validity, he will tell you and guide you in the process. Every marriage situation is unique and it is simply not possible to give an answer on this forum to your particular case. See you priest.

That being said, you must understand the underlying principle that the Catholic Church recognizes all marriages as valid until proven otherwise, teaches that civil divorce does not end a valid marriage, and that after civil divorce parties are still married, and not free to marry anyone else.