Spouse returning after presumed dead?

[JeraldW]

How would put Church handle a situation as in the movie Castaway as ones spouse is assumed dead after a crash or a pow/Mia scenario? What if the spouse remarries in the Church (is it possible even) and then the assumed dead spouse appears many years later arrive and well? How would the Church handle this situation?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Code of Canon Law:

Can. 1707 §1. Whenever the death of a spouse cannot be proven by an authentic ecclesiastical or civil document, the other spouse is not considered free from the bond of marriage until after the diocesan bishop has issued a declaration of presumed death.

§2. The diocesan bishop is able to issue the declaration mentioned in §1 only if, after having carried out appropriate investigations, he attains moral certitude of the death of the spouse from the depositions of witnesses, from rumor, or from evidence. The absence of a spouse alone, even for a long time, is not sufficient.

In order for the missing spouse to be considered “deceased” and the remaining spouse to be “free to marry” the local Bishop must carry out an investigation and arrive at moral certitude that the missing spouse is dead. Moral certitude can be compared to the USA legal standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt.” Note that simply disappearing for a long time is not sufficient proof in itself to lead to a conclusion of death, there must be something more that makes it highly unlikely (i.e. unreasonable) the individual survived.

If the spouse seems beyond any reasonable doubt to be deceased, the Bishop can declare the remaining spouse free to marry. However, this is a declaration that presumes that death has terminated the prior bond of marriage. The declaration has no effect upon the marriage bond, it dissolves nothing.

Thus if the Bishop permits the remaining spouse to marry another and the presumed dead spouse returns alive that would mean that the second marriage was never truly valid. The Bishop’s judgment was in error and the original marriage bond never ceased to exist. Therefore the second marriage must be recognized as invalid and the couple must separate and the previous spouses should reunite.

Obviously this would be an insanely difficult situation to be a part of and would probably require quite some time in therapy to sort out all of the emotions and issues that all the individuals would experience.