Hi
Lino, how is life treating you? I have a question for you:
Can you marry in a Catholic church if you have been
divorced?
Can I get re-married without an annulment? I always thought that the
answer was no...but I have reason to think I
was wrong...
-A.D.
A:
All
right. Yes. No. Depends.
That wasn't confusing, was
it? And that answer
pretty much sums up the confusion most people have when it comes to
Catholic
marriage/divorce/re-marriage. So let me clarify the answer:
All right: How life is treating me.
Yes: You can marry in the Catholic
Church if
you have been divorced - as long as the first marriage has been
annulled.
No: You cannot marry in the
Catholic Church if
you have been married previously, are now divorced, and have not gotten
that first marriage annulled.
Depends: Every situation is
different. Perhaps
you were a Buddhist, drunk at the time, and got married to a
Catholic...by
a justice of the peace in Haiti. In that case - though I'd like to see
the wedding photos - it would probably be grounds for annulment.
The rule of thumb when it
comes to marriage is
this: Jesus said "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits
adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries
another,
she commits adultery" (Mark 10:11-12).
Thus, a person can't
"re-marry" in the Church. But they could get an annulment, otherwise
known as a
"declaration of nullity", if their first marriage was not valid (ie,
the Haitian wedding cited above), and in that way get married in the
Church. You should contact your parish priest who can put you in touch
with a canon lawyer or someone in your diocese to help answer your
questions.
And for the record, the
Church has yet to declare any of my jokes
"null". (Dull is more like it.)
