Marriage ????'s

  • Thread starter Thread starter YADA
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Y

YADA

Guest
I share my opinion as one who was civilly married and divorced and has gone through the anullment process, and had a marriage blessed by the church…

You should not plan a wedding with someone who is married to another…without an official decision, you cannot truthfully know whether the marriage is acramental or not. The Church’s stance is always to presume the validity until investigated…

Your fiancee needs to approach a priest and make a formal request for a ruling on her first marriage…depending on the facts and circumstances she may [or may not] need to have a full annullment hearing…

A priest [yours - if you are wanting a catholic wedding and she is not ctholic - catholic yet? or hers - if she is catholic].

If she is not catholic, is she considering becoming a catholic?

Regardless, once it is determined if she is able to freely marry - take the Pre-Cana classes and marriage preparation seriously…

Talk to a priest [orthodox - not one that will tell you what you want to hear but what the church teaches!]…it is better [and more productive] than posting here IMHO…
 
Hello,

I am a 36 year old single male. I am a practicing Catholic. I am dating a non Catholic divorcee. Her marriage was non-sacramental, but not annuled. We want to get married in the eyes of God (not in Vegas or in a court!), but I need to know what my options are.
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
Any advice is appreciated

Carlo in Columbus
 
nittany14 said:
Hello,

I am a 36 year old single male. I am a practicing Catholic. I am dating a non Catholic divorcee. Her marriage was non-sacramental, but not annuled. We want to get married in the eyes of God (not in Vegas or in a court!), but I need to know what my options are.
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
Any advice is appreciated

Carlo in Columbus
Click to expand...
The answer to the first question depends on lots of things. Even if her marriage didn’t take place in a church or anything, if both partners were non-Catholic at the time it may still be recognised by the Church as valid and therefore require an annulment. The reason for this is that we don’t hold non-Catholics as bound to marry in church necessarily for a real marriage to exist.

You’d need to ask your priest or a canon lawyer for advice on this.

As for being married in another faith - no, you can’t do so and still receive the sacraments. You are a practicing Catholic, bound to marry in accordance with Catholic Church law.
 
40.png
nittany14:
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
Click to expand...
No Carlo. She is married to her first husband and not free to marry you. You cannot marry her, in the chuch or out.

She needs to make an appointment to see a priest and determine if she has a case for a decree of nullity. If she does, she can pursue that through the Church tribunal. BUT, there are no guarantees she will receive one. Therefore, do not make any plans towards marriage until the outcome of the tribunal is known.

Carlo, you don’t know anything about her marriage from the Church’s standpoint-- you say it was nonSacramental… you don’t know this. It might very well have been valid and sacramental.

If her marriage is declared valid-- you cannot marry her because she is already married.
40.png
nittany14:
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
Click to expand...
If she is declared free to marry through a decree of nullity (annulment) then yes, you could ask the Bishop for a dispensation to get married in her church. You would still go through all the marriage prep in the Catholic Church and have a priest as a witness to your marriage.

If you are talking about going ahead and getting married outside the Church without her getting an annulment-- then NO you would be placing yourself into adultery (she is still married to her first husband) and you would not be able to receive the Sacraments. This is mortal sin, Carlo. Don’t go there.

Carlo, you sound like you aren’t very well versed in the Catholic faith. I hope you will get a Catechism and start studying. It is unwise to get yourself into such a situation as being emotionally involved with a divorced non-Catholic and THEN trying to figure out what the Church says about it. It should be the other way around: know your faith before you go into a situation and then you would know not to even start down that path.
 
Carlo,

Duplicate Post. I answered this question on the Moral Theology posting you made.
 
nittany14 said:
Hello,

I am a 36 year old single male. I am a practicing Catholic. I am dating a non Catholic divorcee. Her marriage was non-sacramental, but not annuled. We want to get married in the eyes of God (not in Vegas or in a court!), but I need to know what my options are.
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
Any advice is appreciated

Carlo in Columbus
Click to expand...
The answers to your questions are:

No

and

No

She needs to sit down with your Catholic pastor and start the annulment process.
 
Carlo,
she needs to get an annulment, but don’t fear, its not that difficult. The annulment process is nothing more than determining if a marriage existed, in the eyes of the Church.

I know people who have gone through it and were amazed how smoothly it went.

In all, pray and ask for God’s blessing.

Jim
 
As everyone said,
  1. No You can’t get married until she gets an annulment. Honestly you should not even be dating someone who is married. Having a friendship with her is fine, but I would recommend waiting until her 1st marriage as resolved.
  2. Possibly. People who flat out say no are wrong, to do so you would need dispensation from your bishop, however I advice that usally it is VERY hard to get one. My question would be, why would you want to get married outside our church? Trying not to be too judgemental I usally think, why would a Catholic want to do this, are they not dedicated to our faith?
 
JimR-OCDS said:
Carlo,
she needs to get an annulment, but don’t fear, its not that difficult. The annulment process is nothing more than determining if a marriage existed, in the eyes of the Church.

I know people who have gone through it and were amazed how smoothly it went.

In all, pray and ask for God’s blessing.

Jim
Click to expand...
But, one must also recognize that not every person who petitions for a decree of nullity receives one. There is every possibility that the prior marriage will be found to be valid.
 
Here’s my post from the Moral Theology board, where this question was also posted:
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
No Carlo. She is married to her first husband and not free to marry you. You cannot marry her, in the chuch or out.

She needs to make an appointment to see a priest and determine if she has a case for a decree of nullity. If she does, she can pursue that through the Church tribunal. BUT, there are no guarantees she will receive one. Therefore, do not make any plans towards marriage until the outcome of the tribunal is known.

Carlo, you don’t know anything about her marriage from the Church’s standpoint-- you say it was nonSacramental… you don’t know this. It might very well have been valid and sacramental.

If her marriage is declared valid-- you cannot marry her because she is already married.
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
If she is declared free to marry through a decree of nullity (annulment) then yes, you could ask the Bishop for a dispensation to get married in her church. You would still go through all the marriage prep in the Catholic Church and have a priest as a witness to your marriage.

If you are talking about going ahead and getting married outside the Church without her getting an annulment-- then NO you would be placing yourself into adultery (she is still married to her first husband) and you would not be able to receive the Sacraments. This is mortal sin, Carlo. Don’t go there.

Carlo, you sound like you aren’t very well versed in the Catholic faith. I hope you will get a Catechism and start studying. It is unwise to get yourself into such a situation as being emotionally involved with a divorced non-Catholic and THEN trying to figure out what the Church says about it. It should be the other way around: know your faith before you go into a situation and then you would know not to even start down that path.
 
ljprevo said:
As everyone said,
  1. No You can’t get married until she gets an annulment. Honestly you should not even be dating someone who is married. Having a friendship with her is fine, but I would recommend waiting until her 1st marriage as resolved.
  2. Possibly. People who flat out say no are wrong, to do so you would need dispensation from your bishop, however I advice that usally it is VERY hard to get one. My question would be, why would you want to get married outside our church? Trying not to be too judgemental I usally think, why would a Catholic want to do this, are they not dedicated to our faith?
Click to expand...
On the second point.

IF the woman in question were to have her marriage reviewed by the Tribunal and IF that marriage is found to be null - then she is free to marry. IF a Catholic wishes to marry a non-Catholic in the religious service of the non-Catholic, dispensation must be sought from the Bishop.
 
1ke said:
Here’s my post from the Moral Theology board, where this question was also posted:
  • Is there any chance of marriage in the Catholic Church w/o an annulment?
No Carlo. She is married to her first husband and not free to marry you. You cannot marry her, in the chuch or out.

She needs to make an appointment to see a priest and determine if she has a case for a decree of nullity. If she does, she can pursue that through the Church tribunal. BUT, there are no guarantees she will receive one. Therefore, do not make any plans towards marriage until the outcome of the tribunal is known.

Carlo, you don’t know anything about her marriage from the Church’s standpoint-- you say it was nonSacramental… you don’t know this. It might very well have been valid and sacramental.

If her marriage is declared valid-- you cannot marry her because she is already married.
  • Can we get married in another faith (Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran etc). If so, what are the guidelines and if so can I still be a practicing Catholic and receive the sacraments?
If she is declared free to marry through a decree of nullity (annulment) then yes, you could ask the Bishop for a dispensation to get married in her church. You would still go through all the marriage prep in the Catholic Church and have a priest as a witness to your marriage.

If you are talking about going ahead and getting married outside the Church without her getting an annulment-- then NO you would be placing yourself into adultery (she is still married to her first husband) and you would not be able to receive the Sacraments. This is mortal sin, Carlo. Don’t go there.

Carlo, you sound like you aren’t very well versed in the Catholic faith. I hope you will get a Catechism and start studying. It is unwise to get yourself into such a situation as being emotionally involved with a divorced non-Catholic and THEN trying to figure out what the Church says about it. It should be the other way around: know your faith before you go into a situation and then you would know not to even start down that path.
Click to expand...
This sounds like good advice, and it is, but it doesn’t seem to take into account certain facts:
  1. The woman is not Catholic, so she wouldn’t have thought of getting an annullment.
  2. As a non-Catholic, there is no reason for her to seek one until the issue presents itself, ie. Carlos and her get serious.
  3. Before Carlos got serious there is no reason for him to have her pursue a process that, except for Carlos, means nothing to her.
  4. If the tribunal finds the marriage invalid, then there was no impediment to Carlos to date the woman and get involved so she had to go through a process which means nothing to her.
  5. Hence, it wasn’t unwise for Carlos to get involved in the first place.
Since I’ve posted my opinion on the whole annulment issue on the Eastern Chrisitanity forum, I’ll refrain from doing so here.

If you are a practicing Latin Carlos, and serious, I’d take care of this ASAP, before you get further involved.
 
kage_ar said:
On the second point.

IF the woman in question were to have her marriage reviewed by the Tribunal and IF that marriage is found to be null - then she is free to marry. IF a Catholic wishes to marry a non-Catholic in the religious service of the non-Catholic, dispensation must be sought from the Bishop.
Click to expand...
I wrote the 2nd point with the assumption that she has an annulment before they proceed. See #1, no they can’t even think of #2 until #1 is fulfilled.
 
ljprevo said:
I wrote the 2nd point with the assumption that she has an annulment before they proceed. See #1, no they can’t even think of #2 until #1 is fulfilled.
Click to expand...
Make sense, it seems our OP is a bit hazy and wanted to make sure it was crystal clear 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top