Okay,To start off I am divorced and Well my future husband is catholic.Anyways we went to the parish and thought we'd have to do the annullment for us to get married.Anyways I told the father I wasn't baptized which I am not,I double checked that.I thought my former spouse wasn't either,Until I got home and contacted his father and brother his father says no.His brother says yes he was baptized when he was 13 to be baptist.So then he tells me a partial church name and says he's unsure positivley,But thinks he was. So my question is how do I find out? And does this take me back to the annullment instead of using a Pauline Privilege? There is no one else to contact except my former husband which is in prison.I thought I seen a very good out come to this but now i am very sad and confused. Thanks for the input.

-- Misty Howell (pollockspraygun@aol.com), November 12, 2002

Answers

Hello, Misty.

Too bad you did not continue the conversation on your original thread. Oh, well.

I thought it was interesting that you identified yourself there as a Methodist (up to age 7 or 8), but now you say that you were not baptized. I thought that Methodists believed in infant baptism. Perhaps some splinter sect of Methodism does not?

Although the marriage tribunal may see it differently from me, the use of the Pauline Privilege does not seem to me to be applicable to you, even if you could prove that your husband was never baptized. This privilege of the Church (to dissolve a purely natural marriage between two unbaptized people) is normally supposed to be used to benefit the spouse who has become a Christian and who has found that the non-Christian refuses to live at peace with him/her for religious reasons. That was not the case between you and your husband.

However, if you wish to seek help based on Pauline Privilege, you will have to swear that you were never baptized, and you will need evidence that your husband was not baptized. I think that he might have to provide a sworn statement to that effect. If you give the priest his name and address (the prison), I believe that the Church will contact him and attempt to persuade him to write down the facts. He cannot be forced to participate, though.

If the Pauline Privilege turns out to be inapplicable to your case, then, yes, you would have to seek a Declaration of Nullity. It would be better for you to hold off on calling your new friend your "future husband." The Church may determine that you are still married, in God's eyes.

May He bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), November 13, 2002.