How should a married Catholic respond to an affair?

[Dyth]

Spouse is non-Catholic and having an affair for the past five years with a Catholic divorced lady. Both denied that they are committing adultery and they have a baby. Neither wants to stop this affair. As a Catholic wife what should I do? Spouse is an alcoholic. That’s where the affairs begin.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Your husband has been having a long-term affair with another woman that has produced a child and he refuses to end his unchaste sexual relationship with this other woman. He is also an alcoholic. You would certainly be within your rights to divorce him. Please understand though that a civil divorce is considered by the Church to be the equivalent of a legal separation. You would still be considered married in the Church; you would simply be maintaining separate households. Unless and until you obtained an annulment in the Church, you could not engage in a romantic relationship or marry anyone else while your husband is alive.