Remarriage before conversion?

[angell1]

hi guys. was just wonder how the early church dealt with remarriage of people before they converted to the faith? to my knowledge, there were no annulment processes at the time. i’ve tried looking it up online but never found anything… god bless

 

[FrancisBenedict]

What did Jesus say to the woman at the well?

John 4:16-18

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!”

 

[angell1]

yeah i know. but i don’t really know how he wants us to apply that in ordinary life. was she supposed to leave him and never get married again? or could she stay him now that she knew the truth? or did he want them to get married? what exactly do you do with that?

 

[FrancisBenedict]

I’m sure others will answer you very soon!

 

[devoutchristian]

We don’t know exactly how canonical affairs were handled in the early Church, but I would think that there was something equivalent to annulments. Also, there was (and still is) the Pauline Privelege, whereby converts can have their natural marriage dissolved under certain circumstances.

 

[Nita]

hi guys. was just wonder how the early church dealt with remarriage of people before they converted to the faith? to my knowledge, there were no annulment processes at the time. i’ve tried looking it up online but never found anything… god bless

Since only the Catholic Church was present in early Church times, marriages prior to conversion would have been between unbaptized persons (where the *Pauline Privilege mentioned by devoutChristian would apply) – or between one baptized Christian and one unbaptized non-Christian (possibly Petrine Privilege *could apply).

…A *Pauline Privilege *is the dissolution of a purely natural (not sacramental) marriage which had been contracted between two non-Christians, one of whom has since become a Christian. The Pauline Privilege is so-named because it is based upon the apostle Paul’s words in I Corinthians.

catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=7272
(If you scroll about 1/3 of the way down you’ll get to the section titled “The Pauline Privilege”. It gives background,)

There is also something called the “Petrine Privilege” which sometimes applies between a non-sacramental marriage between a Christian and a non-Christian. The section addressing that follows the Pauline Privilege section.