Question - My current marriage

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I’m about to have a validity investigation to determine if my marriage (ended in divorce 18 years ago) can be annuled. As this process unfolds, I’m also going through RCIA to become Catholic and eventually be baptised and accepted into the church.

I’m currently married (2 years last July). My wife is Catholic. Again…I’m not Catholic. My wife and I would eventually like to have our marriage recognized by the church. While this will certainly be a question I’ll ask of our Priest, I thought I would put it out here and see what you all might have to say.

My question…When my previous marriage is granted an annulment and am baptised and accepted in the church (I know this will be a lengthy process), How will the church treat my now current marriage to my now current wife?

My apologies if this is a stupid question…I subscribe to the theory of there are no stupid questions. Thank you in advance.

Jerry
 
can’t say at all what will happen in your case, each marriage situation is unique. In general the time sequence is this: the first marriage to be contracted is investigated first, as it is still presumed valid, and any marriage contracted later is presumed to be invalid. If the first marriage is found to be invalid a decree of nullity is issued. If there were intervening marriages that have since broken down, they would be investigated in order.

Once it is determined neither party is at this time validly married to anyone else, they are free to marry again, or if they have already contracted a civil marriage, to have that bond convalidated (assuming all the conditions for validity are present at this time, both parties are free to marry, and there was no condition attached to the annulment finding). There will be some marriage preparation involved, addressed to your situation (how long you have been together, whether you have children, whether either party is non-Catholic etc.) it would not be exactly the same as it would for a young engaged couple, for instance, it would respect your own needs.

If either party in the current marriage is not Catholic and desires now to come into full communion with the Catholic Church, the marriage situation must first be resolved before he or she may be confirmed (or baptized, if that never happened) and receive holy communion. It will be the best judgement of the pastor if you will be invited to participate in a preparation class for sacraments, or RCIA, before the marriage issue is settled. There are different issues and situations involved here as well, too many to discuss with any relevance on this forum as regards to a specific case.

Welcome home, and know this, no matter how long it takes, if this is where you belong you will be home in God’s good time, even when it seems the hurdles never end, every test makes your faith stronger. The submission to the will of God, expressed through the laws of the Church, is inherent to and necessary part of the conversion process.

Some examples if various issues that arise: since your wife is Catholic she is bound now by Catholic law on marriage, whereas you would become bound only when you are baptized. It may transpire, it has happened before, where the party in RCIA never did actually decide to accept baptism, in any case the Catholic spouse still has to bring her situation in line with Church law on marriage so she can return to the sacraments. She may also want to learn more about her own faith, and participate with her non-Catholic spouse in the RCIA or confirmation class. There also differences depending on whether or not the person coming into the Church has been baptized, and sometimes children of the marriage also need to be prepared for sacraments.

It is very common here to celebrate marriage convalidations during the day or week before Easter, or date of confirmation, have candidates come to the sacrament of confession, and then come to the initiation sacraments. Many parishes have the weddings during Holy Week. We had two weddings on Saturday evening the vigil of Pentecost, the candidates then made their confession after Mass, and were confirmed with the bishop the following day. I have seen some parishes where the weddings are right before or even part of the Easter Vigil. That is more a question of logistics and local custom and that timing will be up to the pastor.

There will usually be someone like me in charge of making sure paperwork is in order and everyone is prepared properly for all sacraments received, to handle the details.

One thing is always the same, the celebration of these sacraments opens up channels of amazing life-changing grace for these individuals and families.
 
I’m about to have a validity investigation to determine if my marriage (ended in divorce 18 years ago) can be annuled. As this process unfolds, I’m also going through RCIA to become Catholic and eventually be baptised and accepted into the church.

I’m currently married (2 years last July). My wife is Catholic. Again…I’m not Catholic. My wife and I would eventually like to have our marriage recognized by the church. While this will certainly be a question I’ll ask of our Priest, I thought I would put it out here and see what you all might have to say.

My question…When my previous marriage is granted an annulment and am baptised and accepted in the church (I know this will be a lengthy process), How will the church treat my now current marriage to my now current wife?

My apologies if this is a stupid question…I subscribe to the theory of there are no stupid questions. Thank you in advance.

Jerry
Puzzle Annie gave a detailed reply which I did not completely read so I apologize if I am repeating.

I cannot say what will happen in your case but I cna relate what happened in mine.
In our case we were both non-practicing Catholics, both divorced. She had received an annulment of her first marriage years before we were married. I had not had mine annuled.
I applied for an annulment and it was granted. This cleared the way for us to be accepted back into the Church. We immediately went to confession and then, as soon as it could be arranged we had our marriage convalidated. This consisted of a very simple ceremony in the Church where we repeated our marriage vows. After this we were able to recieve communion.
I realize that my situation was a bit more simple than yours since we were both already catholic by baptism and confirmation, but I hope it gives some insight into how the process works.

By the way, I know you haven’t asked but I feel compelled to point out that, until these issues are resolved, you should remain celibate. By this I do not mean move out or anything but refrain from the marital embrace until after your marriage is convalidated by the Church.

Peace
James
 
Just curious, Are you prepared to follow Jesus no matter how tough it is if your first marriage is considered valid by Christ’s church. By following Jesus this means you can never have relations with your current legal wife for this would be considered adultery. I say this because in your one comment you stated “When my marriage is annulled”. It might not be annulled.
 
Just curious, Are you prepared to follow Jesus no matter how tough it is if your first marriage is considered valid by Christ’s church. By following Jesus this means you can never have relations with your current legal wife for this would be considered adultery. I say this because in your one comment you stated “When my marriage is annulled”. It might not be annulled.
At this point in time I’m taking this day by day. I’ve prayed about this and believe in my heart my previous marriage will be found invalid. I’m just beginning this journey (have yet to submit any paperwork). This is all I can do at this time.

I worded it “when my marriage is annulled” because I’m trying to be positive in this. As I have stated in other threads, I’ve been divorced for 18 years and have had to reflect on that time in my life more in the past week than I’ve done in a long, long time.

I’ve not shared any details on this forum about the circumstances behind what led to my divorce. I believe these (at this time still keeping it to myself) will lead to being proved invalid.

J
 
Puzzle Annie gave a detailed reply which I did not completely read so I apologize if I am repeating.

I cannot say what will happen in your case but I cna relate what happened in mine.
In our case we were both non-practicing Catholics, both divorced. She had received an annulment of her first marriage years before we were married. I had not had mine annuled.
I applied for an annulment and it was granted. This cleared the way for us to be accepted back into the Church. We immediately went to confession and then, as soon as it could be arranged we had our marriage convalidated. This consisted of a very simple ceremony in the Church where we repeated our marriage vows. After this we were able to recieve communion.
I realize that my situation was a bit more simple than yours since we were both already catholic by baptism and confirmation, but I hope it gives some insight into how the process works.

By the way, I know you haven’t asked but I feel compelled to point out that, until these issues are resolved, you should remain celibate. By this I do not mean move out or anything but refrain from the marital embrace until after your marriage is convalidated by the Church.

Peace
James
Thank you, James for your message. And "Thank You’ for your final paragraph. You’re right, I haven’t asked…simply because I did know the answer.

J
 
I’m about to have a validity investigation to determine if my marriage (ended in divorce 18 years ago) can be annuled. As this process unfolds, I’m also going through RCIA to become Catholic and eventually be baptised and accepted into the church.

I’m currently married (2 years last July). My wife is Catholic. Again…I’m not Catholic. My wife and I would eventually like to have our marriage recognized by the church. While this will certainly be a question I’ll ask of our Priest, I thought I would put it out here and see what you all might have to say.

My question…When my previous marriage is granted an annulment and am baptised and accepted in the church (I know this will be a lengthy process), How will the church treat my now current marriage to my now current wife?

My apologies if this is a stupid question…I subscribe to the theory of there are no stupid questions. Thank you in advance.

Jerry
[user]puzzleannie[/user] surely offers wise counsel, but I want to note:

If you are indeed not yet baptized (or were not at the time), your first marriage *may *not be investigated for nullity, but rather may be dissoluble under the *Pauline *or the *Petrine privilege *(depending on whether or not your first spouse was also unbaptized). NB: I have no idea which, if either, is easier: such a dissolution or an investigation for nullity. 🤷

Be sure to give all of this relevant information to the person who will be handling your case.

tee
who is Not A Canon Lawyer
 
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