Sacrament of Marriage. HELP!

[telawrence]

I was raised Baptist and have been attending RCIA classes and had planned on joining the church at Holy Saturday Mass.

Five years ago by wife had an affair and left me for another man. We got a divorce.

I am currently engaged to another woman and we are getting married in June.

I was baptized as a baptist, but was not practicing. My ex-wife, I am not certain if she was baptised or not, but she wasn’t practicing any religion and our marriage was not by a priest or in a church.

I want to be a part of the church and feel drawn to it.

Can I join the church and take part in communion, can i get married and have it be blessed by the church? How do I do this?

I feel heart broken and want to make this right.

 

[Seatuck]

I was raised Baptist and have been attending RCIA classes and had planned on joining the church at Holy Saturday Mass.

Five years ago by wife had an affair and left me for another man. We got a divorce.

I am currently engaged to another woman and we are getting married in June.

I was baptized as a baptist, but was not practicing. My ex-wife, I am not certain if she was baptised or not, but she wasn’t practicing any religion and our marriage was not by a priest or in a church.

I want to be a part of the church and feel drawn to it.

Can I join the church and take part in communion, can i get married and have it be blessed by the church? How do I do this?

I feel heart broken and want to make this right.

Yes you can join the church but there are some things you will need to do. You will have to look into the validity of your first marriage. Make an appointment with the priest . This might take a while. Don’t give up. Receiving Christ in the Eucharist is worth the wait.

 

[Phemie]

I think you would be much better off talking to your parish priest about this than asking here.

But since you ask…

Unless your ex was Catholic, the Church still considers you married. Being divorced, by itself, wouldn’t stop you from coming into full communion but you’d be expected to conduct yourself as a married man and dating and planning a wedding aren’t appropriate behavior for a married man.

If you truly want to become Catholic, the best thing you can do is approach your priest and ask about petitioning for a decree of nullity (an annulment). If granted, it would leave you free to marry in the Church.

 

[telawrence]

Unless your ex was Catholic, the Church still considers you married…

Thanks for replying.

I just spoke to my ex-wife and she was baptized as a Catholic as a child. Does that change something.

Also, I will speak with the priest of the church where I am taking RCIA this weekend. But thanks for taking your time to answer.

 

[katy_kt]

Since your wife was baptized Catholic, was your previous marriage in the Catholic Church or blessed by a Catholic priest?

Edit:

My ex-wife, I am not certain if she was baptised or not, but she wasn’t practicing any religion and our marriage was not by a priest or in a church.

If your ex-wife didn’t get the permission from the priest, this could be grounds for an annulment. Baptized Catholics are required to marry in the Church or get the blessings of the Catholic priest.

 

[Phemie]

Thanks for replying.

I just spoke to my ex-wife and she was baptized as a Catholic as a child. Does that change something.

Also, I will speak with the priest of the church where I am taking RCIA this weekend. But thanks for taking your time to answer.

If in fact your ex was baptized Catholic and you and she never met with a priest prior to the wedding, I doubt very much that she obtained the necessary permission to enter a mixed marriage or the dispensation necessary to marry outside the Church. If such is the case your marriage is not presumed valid.

Get your ex to get a recent certificate of Baptism which proves she’s a Catholic. Odds are good that your marriage will not be recorded on it. Get a photocopy of your marriage registration (not certificate but registration - that paper shows where you were married and by whom) from the State. Take those two documents and your divorce papers to the priest. Depending on the diocese, that may be all it takes to prove that your first ‘marriage’ was invalid: the priest would enter all that information in the documents as you prepare for the upcoming marriage. If yours is not a diocese where the priest can simply do that, he would file those papers with the Marriage Tribunal which would respond quickly with a decree of nullity due to Lack of Canonical Form (IOW, your ex didn’t do what she needed to do for your marriage to be valid).

 

[puzzleannie]

Thanks for replying.

I just spoke to my ex-wife and she was baptized as a Catholic as a child. Does that change something.

Also, I will speak with the priest of the church where I am taking RCIA this weekend. But thanks for taking your time to answer.

absolutely
since she seems cooperative, and might be relieved to have this issue settled as well, ask her to obtain a recent baptismal certificate showing all sacraments received. you will also need your original marriage certificate (or another copy from the court, expensive and time consuming, but necessary) and your divorce papers. There are also other procedures so please make an appointment with your priest today to get going on this. If facts are as you state–and in my experience there is always more to the story so please take this as a general answer, not necessarily true for you–your first marriage was invalid due to lack of form, that is, the Catholic party did not adhere to Church law on marriage.

The only person who can get you moving on this is the pastor in the Church where you hope to be received.

When the issue of the first marriage is resolved, he will guide you on what is needed to make your current marriage valid.

Bear in mind the baptismal status and marital history of everyone involved (you, your ex, any previous spouses of hers, you new wife, her ex if any and so forth) must be established. In general these things are easier to resolve than people expect.

Welcome Home! you can do this!