Is my marriage legitimate?

[FLChristyB]

I am divorced and remarried. My first husband was Catholic, but had never been confirmed, at the time we were married I had never been baptized. Our marriage was preformed in a Methodist Church. We were married 18 years and had two children, during a particularly difficult time in our marriage I went through the RCIA program and became Catholic and my husband was confirmed, and though I worked to save our marriage, he left us and we obtained a divorce.

While my current marriage is legal, I am not sure it would be recognized by the Church since my husband is not Catholic and we were not married in a Church. I guess it is considered a ‘civil’ marriage? It was preformed by a retired judge.

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

There are several issues here and a few possible approaches but your situation can be addressed in a rather simple manner.

Your first marriage is not considered a valid marriage by the Church. Catholics are required to be married in the Church (this is called canonical form), your first husband was a Catholic. Therefore the marriage was required to be in a Catholic parish or to receive a dispensation to be married elsewhere. You would know if you went through that process or not, and since you did not mention it I will presume no dispensation was applied for. Therefore the marriage is invalid.

You can therefore petition for a declaration of nullity for your first marriage (through your local parish) on the grounds of lack of canonical form. This would then mean that you are free to marry and could have your marriage validated (i.e. “blessed”) by the Church.