Till Death Do Us Part?

[rayo1937]

I am a Catholic dating a Protestant girl. She was married in the Hungarian Orthodox Church,by the cleric. A Catholic priest was also a participant in the ceremony because her intended husband,being Catholic,requested it. They subsequently divorced.
Is she considered married by a priest,divorced,and a Catholic can’t marry her,without running afoul of Church law?
Thanx

 

[joandarc2008]

My mother and father were married the same way. I know as far as my father’s family sees it and he sees it they are married for life. He is the Catholic One. However, I do not know the Canon Law on this one so if I were you I would check with your priest or deacon. I suspect the main reason that you have been holding out from doing so is that you already have feelings involved and maybe afraid of the truth. Just because it is not a lack of form does not necessarily mean she could not have it annulled if it needed to be. It would depend on many things. Good luck and God bless.

 

[Dempsey1919]

Did they get the marriage annulled by the Church? Or was it simply a civil divorce?

 

[Geremia]

Is she considered married by a priest,divorced,and a Catholic can’t marry her,without running afoul of Church law?

Priests do not marry a husband and a wife; the husband and wife confer the sacrament of matrimony on one another themselves.

Yes, if you married her you would commit the mortal sin of adultery (St. Matthew 19:9):

And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.

 

[Phemie]

Priests do not marry a husband and a wife; the husband and wife confer the sacrament of matrimony on one another themselves.

That is so in the Latin Rite, but is not the teaching of the Eastern Rite or the Orthodox Churches. They teach that the priest (and only a priest, never a deacon) is the one who confers the sacrament.

 

[In_Vino_Veritas]

Her first marriage was, as we say, presumptively valid. This means that she cannot marry you in a Catholic church unless and until her first marriage is determined by a marriage tribunal to be invalid.

There are a lot of things that could make her first marriage invalid. For example, did her husband get a dispensation to marry outside the church? Since a priest was there, he presumably did, but you will have to check.

Please make an appointment with your parish priest to discuss it.

 

[Seatuck]

I am a Catholic dating a Protestant girl. She was married in the Hungarian Orthodox Church,by the cleric. A Catholic priest was also a participant in the ceremony because her intended husband,being Catholic,requested it. They subsequently divorced.
Is she considered married by a priest,divorced,and a Catholic can’t marry her,without running afoul of Church law?
Thanx

It appears to be a valid marriaged based on the above info of a Catholic Priest being present. But you cannot truly know this until she requests the marriage tribunal examine the marriage. It is possible that a dcree of nullity would be issued. She needs to make an appointment with a priest-yours will be fine to start proceedings. She will need to provide some info.

The part that I find especially puzzling is that the marriage took place in a Hungarian Orthodox Church. That’s not typical for a Catholic or a Protestant.

You might want to read some books on Annulments.
Catholic Answers offers some, Ed Peters wrote a good one and there is another one which explains a great deal by Michael Smith Foster.

 

[stbruno]

Many Orthodox churches will only allow their members to be married in an Orthodox church or risk excommunication…not just the denial of sacraments.

So the Catholic church will provide a dispensation for disparity of cult and dispensation of canonical form and allow a Catholic to be married in an Orthodox church, allowing this as a sacramental union.

I don’t know if this were the case…and neither will a tribunal until the documentation is in place for an annulment. As previous posters have suggested, start first with your parish priest if you are intending marriage.