Is Annulment necessary to join the Church?

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donnas

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Can I join and be confirmed in the Catholic Church if I am a divorced Protestant without an annulment? My boyfriend has never been baptised but we both took the lessons and completed them and were told we could not get batised or confirmed without me getting my annulment, even though we are not living together or married at this time. I don’t understand this. If we want to get married in the Church later, which we do, then the Annulment would be necessary, right? But why now? This makes no sense to me and I’m really wondering if it was confusion on the part of the Maronite Church not understanding that we were not married or living together at that time, nor now. I’m very confused here and extremely disappointed because no one told us this until Saturday morning the day of Confirmation. We were so excited and thrilled. I’ve wanted to be Catholic my entire life. 😦
 
donnas said:
Can I join and be confirmed in the Catholic Church if I am a divorced Protestant without an annulment? My boyfriend has never been baptised but we both took the lessons and completed them and were told we could not get batised or confirmed without me getting my annulment, even though we are not living together or married at this time. I don’t understand this. If we want to get married in the Church later, which we do, then the Annulment would be necessary, right? But why now? This makes no sense to me and I’m really wondering if it was confusion on the part of the Maronite Church not understanding that we were not married or living together at that time, nor now. I’m very confused here and extremely disappointed because no one told us this until Saturday morning the day of Confirmation. We were so excited and thrilled. I’ve wanted to be Catholic my entire life. 😦
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Because you are not married or living together, there shouldn’t be a problem with becoming Catholic right now, but once you are Catholic, you will no longer be allowed to date until it has become clear (with a Declaration of Nullity) that you are not actually married at the present time.

Keep in mind that dating is the prelude to marriage. If you are not free to marry, then you are not free to date.

This pertains to the Latin Rite; I wonder if maybe the Maronite Rite is more strict? :confused:
 
jmcrae said:
Because you are not married or living together, there shouldn’t be a problem with becoming Catholic right now, but once you are Catholic, you will no longer be allowed to date until it has become clear (with a Declaration of Nullity) that you are not actually married at the present time.

Keep in mind that dating is the prelude to marriage. If you are not free to marry, then you are not free to date.

This pertains to the Latin Rite; I wonder if maybe the Maronite Rite is more strict? :confused:
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👍 This was my thoughts exactly…

Can’t be officially dating because it’s considered sinful without a declaration of nullity. You should pursue the annulment first I believe since you want to marry. They’re helping you I believe to make the commitment to be faithful to the teachings of the Church. It’s for your own good. I mean you’re openly professing to be dating with intensions of marriage in your future. We already have enough confused Catholics running amuck from what we were told in RCIA. So why not just go through the process. That way you can both come in the the Church with full sacraments…top it off with marriage or if the declaration doesn’t go the way you hope then…you can make an informed decision. Just my thoughts.
 
donnas, Has anyone asked you and your boyfriend what you would do if the church examines your previous marriage and finds that there are no grounds for an annulment? If you become Catholic, you promise to follow the church’s marriage regulations. Would you be willing to give up your relationship if you couldn’t get an annulment? If you both can’t answer a definite yes to the question then you aren’t ready to come into the church just yet.

Even if you had no boyfriend, it would be a good idea to apply for an annulment asap just so you would know if you are free to marry.

Some of the people who have gone through our RCIA program have had to wait while marriage issues were sorted out. They say it was worth the difficult wait. I hope all works out well for you.
 
donnas said:
Can I join and be confirmed in the Catholic Church if I am a divorced Protestant without an annulment? My boyfriend has never been baptised but we both took the lessons and completed them and were told we could not get batised or confirmed without me getting my annulment, even though we are not living together or married at this time. I don’t understand this. If we want to get married in the Church later, which we do, then the Annulment would be necessary, right? But why now? This makes no sense to me and I’m really wondering if it was confusion on the part of the Maronite Church not understanding that we were not married or living together at that time, nor now. I’m very confused here and extremely disappointed because no one told us this until Saturday morning the day of Confirmation. We were so excited and thrilled. I’ve wanted to be Catholic my entire life. 😦
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Hi donnas,

I agree with the link that wanner47 provided. As long as you haven’t remarried and are dating chastely, I see no reason for them to make you get an annulment prior to being received into the Church. (And for what it’s worth, I think it absolutely ridiculous of them to only inform of you about that on the day of the confirmation. :rolleyes: )

If they had instead said “because you’re dating, you need to at least apply for annulment before being received into the Church” then I think I could see the sense in that.
 
Also donnas, I noticed you mentioned it being a Maronite Church. Not to get off on a tangent, but I want to point out that since you’re coming from Protestantism, you will by default be received in the Latin Church unless you make arrangements to the contrary. (The fact that the reception and confirmation would take place at a Maronite parish doesn’t affect that. Conversely, if an Orthodox person is received into the Catholic Church, they by default are enrolled in one of the Eastern Catholic Churches, even if the reception-into-full-communion takes place at the Latin-Rite Church.)
 
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