Is this marriage valid?

[AureaElizabeth]

My Catholic sister-in-law married a non-practicing Mormon (who, even if he was “baptized,” it would be invalid) in the Catholic Church within a Nuptial Mass last year. The priest knew the groom was not validly baptized, but did not ask the bishop for a dispensation. My sister-in-law did not know this was a requirement at the time since the priest did not tell her. Is her marriage currently valid or is she still required to obtain a dispensation and then get a convalidation?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

I’m not sure how you would know if the priest asked for the dispensation or not. Generally speaking she simply needed to assert that she would remain Catholic and would do her best to raise the children Catholic. The dispensation would have been handled by the priest and the chancery. I wouldn’t be too hasty to determine the priest didn’t follow through on getting the dispensation.

However, should he have failed to obtain a dispensation then the marriage would have be invalid:

Can. 1086 §1. A marriage between two persons, one of whom has been baptized in the Catholic Church or received into it and has not defected from it by a formal act and the other of whom is not baptized, is invalid.

If he had failed to obtain the dispensation, resulting in an invalid marriage, the situation can most likely be corrected with a radical sanation.