If a person is assumed dead (but they are not) and their spouse remarries, are they living in sin?

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Cirdan_XII

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If a person is assumed dead (but they are not) and their spouse remarries, are they living in sin?

So for example a soldier goes missing in war or a sailor is assumed drowned in a shipwreck. Despite a thorough search and waiting many years, no sign of the missing is ever found, and they are finally pronounced legally dead.

The spouse remarries.

And then many years later the missing person turns up. Maybe he was marooned on an island, or maybe he temporarily lost his sanity or memory, or maybe even intentionally hid away under a false identity for whatever reason.

In the eyes of the Catholic Church, is the wife / widow now living in sin?

Does the second marriage get annulled? Or can it be annulled? Does the original husband have any claim?
 
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Wasn’t this a movie with Kris Kristofferson? “Welcome Home”?

I don’t have an answer to your question, but I remember that movie though I haven’t thought about it in years.
 
The spouse can only remarry after a declaration of death, per canon 1707. If they receive such a declaration, they are free to enter a new marriage and no they are not committing a sin.

https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P6S.HTM
Cirdan_XII said:
In the eyes of the Catholic Church, is the wife / widow now living in sin?
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If the spouse is found to be alive, then the second marriage is not valid and the spouse of the returned person would need to separate from the second marriage partner.
Cirdan_XII said:
Does the second marriage get annulled?
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The second marriage is not a valid marriage. There is nothing to annul.
Cirdan_XII said:
Does the original husband have any claim?
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The original husband is the valid spouse.
 
Oh man, all I think about is the Tom hanks classic “castaway”. Where his wife remarried and then he escapes the island and finds her and they go their separate ways. Something about that always enraged me.
 
Me too. The wife even ran out into the rain to tell Tom Hanks she was still in love with him and wanted to be with him, but he told her to stay with the second husband she didn’t even want.
 
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They aren’t living in sin.
There is no sin if the person doesn’t know it is a sin
However, the situation should be corrected. Perhaps if there was grounds to annul the first marriage, then the present couple could marry, hopefully.
 
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