I think so.
Make an appointment with the parish priest in the nearest parish church where you live…ask the questiosns…or your dad can and make an appointment himself with the local parish priest.
Your father would have to consult a priest to see about having his marriage recognized (convalidated) in the Catholic Church.
Would him having married a woman who had been divorced cause any difficulty?
I hope and think that once he finds out that I am converting, he will want to return to the Church.
Not much probably. In fact virtually none at all if her first marriage was not a Catholic marriage.
If a Catholic marries without the approval of the Church then it is not valid. Then if he does get married it must only be with one that is free to marry. Since your mother is not Catholic, she is not held to the Catholic canonical form of marriage, so her prior marriage may be valid, and that would have to be determined first, by a tribunal, if your parents were to be married with the approval of the Catholic Church.
That is not at all true, since she is Protestant. That her first marriage was not a Catholic marriage has nothing whatsoever to do with its validity, unless she married a Catholic man who had not received permission to marry in a non-Catholic ceremony.
If your parents are still together, then your mother’s first marriage would need to be examined to determine its validity. The best person to talk to about this would be a priest, as he would know the right questions to ask to determine your father’s particular situation.
So unless your father has shown some interest, he may not return. Pray for your parents and be very loving toward them, but don’t bring it up much (invite them to join you at Mass, but don’t argue with them if they don’t join you!).
My point is that it’s a much simpler and faster process to examine the validity of a protestant marriage than a Catholic marriage, and is more likely to result in a declaration of nullity.
Non-Catholic marriages are just as likely to be valid as Catholic marriages. If the words “until death ye do part” were used (or any words that mean something like that) then the marriage is valid - and in the case of two non-Catholics, it doesn’t matter where the wedding took place, or who presided over it.
That may have been true of most of them at one time, but unfortunately it is not the case today especially with Protestant marriages. many if not most of them omit one or more essential aspects of marriage such as the necessity of each spouse to freely, fully and honestly commit to lifelong fidelity and openness to the conception and upbringing of children. Many protestant “marriages” today are nothing more than “a public recognition that two people love each other” and in some cases they actually explicitly say this. Of course that is not what marriage is about at all.
This is simply untrue.
Like I said, if the words “until death ye do part,” or words that mean the same thing, were used, then the marriage is valid.
Be careful in this statement. The Church does not have any particular formula of vows required by law.
The vows not including the words “til death do us part” is not grounds for nullity. The couple must exclude one of the essential properties by a positive act of their will. If the vows themselves do not exclude an essential property of marriage then consent is presumed to meet Canon 1096 and 1099 and 1101.
They do not have to “appear” in a Catholic court of law. They give their testimony in a written form.
This is a question he needs to ask his pastor. He needs to share all the details of the situation with his pastor. We really cannot say whether it will be ‘hard’ or not, or how long it will take, or what the outcome will be.