Marriage Dispensation

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keeyoh

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Hi,

I have a rather unique situation and I can’t seem to find the answers online that cover all of my questions.

My fiance is not baptized (but he believes in God, prays, and has a good relationship with God, and is totally supportive of my religion and wants to raise our future children Catholic). He’s also been married before (as I have I, but I’ve had my previous marriage annulled). I understand that because he is not baptized we could get a dispensation from the church to be married (I think it’s called Conflict of Worship?). Would he have to get his previous marriage annulled in order for us to be married, though? Even though his ex-wife wasn’t Catholic and their marriage wasn’t done in a church or anything? Thanks!
 
keeyoh said:
Hi,

I have a rather unique situation and I can’t seem to find the answers online that cover all of my questions.

My fiance is not baptized (but he believes in God, prays, and has a good relationship with God, and is totally supportive of my religion and wants to raise our future children Catholic). He’s also been married before (as I have I, but I’ve had my previous marriage annulled). I understand that because he is not baptized we could get a dispensation from the church to be married (I think it’s called Conflict of Worship?). Would he have to get his previous marriage annulled in order for us to be married, though? Even though his ex-wife wasn’t Catholic and their marriage wasn’t done in a church or anything? Thanks!
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The Catholic Church recognizes your fiance’s natural marriage as a valid, legitimate marriage, even though it did not take place in the Catholic Church. If he wants to marry in the Catholic Church he would need to apply for an annulment of his marriage. Every prior marriage must be investigated and annulled before a person can enter a new
marriage. The same criteria are used except for Catholic canonical form. The basis is Genesis 2:18-25 teaches that God’s will has established all marriage, and permanence Matthew 19:3-12.

It is called a dispensation is for disparity of cult (A Catholic and a non-baptized person).
 
Do you know that baptism is how one becomes born again into the family of God? Baptism removes original sin, and any sins commited so far in the person’s life. Whooosh clean slate! It also opens up the soul to God’s grace. It is such a blessing. Please encourage him to be baptised. 🙂
 
Since this is not a hypothetical situation, the place to ask is when you sit down with your priest for the pre-cana stuff.
 
As others have mentioned, you’ll want to talk to your priest about this.

When you do though, it is worth mentioning that he is not baptized - it is my understanding that this means that the marriage is not sacramental and hence can be dissolved in certain cases even if it was a valid natural marriage to begin with (whereas a sacramental marriage can never be dissolved, only determined not to have been valid from the beginning).

I have no idea how exactly this works, but chances are that your priest has dealt with this sort of thing before (and if he has not, he’ll certainly have access to people who know exactly how all this works) and can help you get this figured out.

(Your situation seems similar to those covered by the Petrine privilege, which is why I bring this up, but again I’m not sure if it really is or not and you’d have to talk to your priest to figure out how it works.)
 
Iron_Donkey said:
…

When you do though, it is worth mentioning that he is not baptized - it is my understanding that this means that the marriage is not sacramental and hence can be dissolved in certain cases even if it was a valid natural marriage to begin with (whereas a sacramental marriage can never be dissolved, only determined not to have been valid from the beginning).

I have no idea how exactly this works, but chances are that your priest has dealt with this sort of thing before (and if he has not, he’ll certainly have access to people who know exactly how all this works) and can help you get this figured out.
…)
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It is called a Petrine Privilege. It is similar to the Pauline Privilege, but must come from the pope. If all the paper work is in order it can be done in a few months.
 
keeyoh said:
Hi,

I have a rather unique situation and I can’t seem to find the answers online that cover all of my questions.

My fiance is not baptized (but he believes in God, prays, and has a good relationship with God, and is totally supportive of my religion and wants to raise our future children Catholic). He’s also been married before (as I have I, but I’ve had my previous marriage annulled). I understand that because he is not baptized we could get a dispensation from the church to be married (I think it’s called Conflict of Worship?). Would he have to get his previous marriage annulled in order for us to be married, though? Even though his ex-wife wasn’t Catholic and their marriage wasn’t done in a church or anything? Thanks!
Click to expand...
These are the current norms to follow in the case of the previously married non-Baptised, to be married to a Catholic.

NORMS ON THE PREPARATION OF THE PROCESS FOR THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MARRIAGE BOND IN FAVOUR OF THE FAITH (CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH):

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20010430_favor-fidei_en.html
 
Thank you for all of the great links and information. This is all stuff that is new to me. My fiancé is currently deployed, but once he gets back we were planning to sit down together with my priest and discuss all of this. I just wanted to do some research ahead of time, and you all helped out a lot! Thank you!
 
Please review the sticky note on this board (at top above the open threads).

All people entering marriage must be declared free to marry. In his case, because he is unbaptized, there are potentially several avenues open to him (depending upon the baptismal status of his ex and whether or not she had been previously married or was Catholic). Those avenues include a full tribunal investigation of nullity, pauline or petrine privilege, Ligamen, or lack of form (if ex was Catholic, which you indicate is not the case).

The priest will assist with which are applicable and likely avenues.
 
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