I have had my marriage annulled by the civil court but it is taking ages to get the annullment by the tribunal catholic church due to inept procedure. Infact after 2yrs I am still waiting for my case to be appointed. Can I, while waiting for the tribunal to finally decide to appoint my case, get married in a protestant church? Please if anyone can enlighten on this I will be most grateful.

-- Maria Masini (masimar77@hotmail.com), June 07, 2003

Answers

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

Well, the civil authorities won't object. And most likely the Protestant church won't object, especially if they have already agreed to marry you. But from the viewpoint of objective truth - and the Catholic Church will not offer you anything less - you are risking being "married" to two men at once, which of course is technically impossible. Therefore, you are in fact risking making your second "marriage" invalid, and therefore no marriage at all, if you go through with the ceremony without waiting for a determination of the status of your first marriage.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

If by "get married" you mean "have a marriage recognized as valid by the Catholic Church" the answer is "no". Until the declaration of nullity is actually granted, the Catholic Church will not recognize a later marriage as valid.

You can get married in a protestant church, or civilly, without the anullment for civil legal purposes, but the Catholic church will consider the marriage "irregular" and tell you you cannot receive communion until a declaration of nullity is obtained and the marriage convalidated (i.e., "blessed" by the Church).

There are a large number of people in such "irregular" marriages - good statistics are hard to come by, but most estimates have less than a quarter of remarried Catholics having recieved the required annulment(s). They deal with the situation in a variety of ways, depending upon their own comfort levels. Some go without communion, sometimes for years; some find a sympathetic priest who will allow them to receive communion (the controversial "internal forum" solution), some find a parish were the priest doesn't know them and their situation and receive communion there, some go occasionally to a Methodist (or other) protestant church to receive communion. (As you might suppose, the last two are not approved by the Church, and the "internal forum" solution is, as I noted, controversial)

-- Rick (rosenbergerra@yahoo.com), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

first, your first marraige was not annuled in the civil court. you got a divorce. there is a HUGE difference.

second, you can get remarried in a protestant church, but according to your faith the marraige would be worthless as it would be invalid. you might as well just not get married and go straight for adultery without any hiding it because thats what it would be.

if your faith is at a level where it should be, and you respect the teachings of your church you will wait until your previous marraige is annuled prior to getting remarried, and you will get remarried in a valid sacramental ceremony.

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

What don't you like about my answer?

My first two paragraphs say basically the same thing as the two Pauls who responded - the answer, from the perspective of the Catholic Church, is "no", although civilly allowed. The "can't recieve communion" part is straight from Familiaris Consortio -I can quote it for you if you don't believe me.

The last paragraph is simply fact. There are a very large number of irregular marriages out there, and these are ways various people deal with the situation when they find themselves in it. I did not recommend any of them; in fact, I explicitly noted that they are "not approved by the Church" or "controversial". Do you doubt that there are people who do these things? As I also noted, the way each person deals with the situation is made by each person "depending upon their own comfort levels". If you are uncomfortable with any or all of these, then you must act according to what you are comfortable with. But, whether you approve or not, this is the way the real world is, at least in my part of the country.

I wish you well with your problem, and hope that things get moving along soon.

-- Rick (rosenbergerra@yahoo.com), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

well, first, you did not note that she has no form of annulment in the civil divorce.

second, you state that there is a (controversial) internal forum solution when we know this is not the case.

third, you state that the act of continuing communion is not approved by the church. this is innacurate. it is forbidden by the church and to do so concerns a grave matter.

thus your answer was acceptable (somewhat), but not complete. you just planted ideas of how to try to cheat the system without explaining the inherent sin in such evasion of church teaching.

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

Paul-

>>well, first, you did not note that she has no form of annulment in the civil divorce.<<

She said that she has taken care of the civil part of the marriage, which is a prerequisit for the ecclesiastical declaration of nullity, at least in the diocese in which I live, which won't even look at the annulment until the civil marriage is ended by divorce or civil annulment - of which, in my state, there is such a thing. The necessary distinction here is between the civil and the ecclesiastical, not between whether we use the word "divorce" or "annulment". As the civil end is taken care of, there was simply no reason for me to comment on the matter. She was aking about the ecclesiastical part, not the civil part.

>>second, you state that there is a (controversial) internal forum solution when we know this is not the case.<<

There are in fact parish priests who use the internal forum. You may believe there are not, but if you do believe that, you are simply wrong. And it is controversial.

>>third, you state that the act of continuing communion is not approved by the church. this is innacurate. it is forbidden by the church and to do so concerns a grave matter. <<

No, reread my answer. I said the ways some folks accomodate themselves to the situation of not being admitted to communion are not approved by the Church. What I said was "the Catholic church will consider the marriage "irregular" and tell you you cannot receive communion until a declaration of nullity is obtained and the marriage convalidated", which is true. Will the Church not consider the marriage irregular? Will the Church tell someone in an irregular marriage that they may receive communion?

>>thus your answer was acceptable (somewhat), but not complete. you just planted ideas of how to try to cheat the system without explaining the inherent sin in such evasion of church teaching.<<

There are lots of people out there who consider themselves good Catholics who do accomodate themselves in various ways of being told the may not recieve communion. I mentioned a a few, including complying. Do you deny that there are people who consider themselves good Catholics who make use of the accomodations I mentioned?

You did not mention the very practical matter what would happen if she were to marry in a protestant church without an annulment (being told that she would not being admitted to communion), so your answer was also not complete. No one can say everything about this topic, which is why there is rightly more than one answer given to the question. You chose to emphasize one aspect, I chose another.

-- Rick (rosnebergerra@yahoo.com), June 07, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

I said the ways some folks accomodate themselves to the situation of not being admitted to communion are not approved by the Church.

yes, but the way you said it makes it seem okay, since 'hey, there are lots of other catholics doing it.' it is enough to speak of the grave nature of continuing to take communion. AND just because a priest choses to believe in the 'internal forum' does not make it church teaching.

What I said was "the Catholic church will consider the marriage "irregular" and tell you you cannot receive communion until a declaration of nullity is obtained and the marriage convalidated", which is true. Will the Church not consider the marriage irregular?

not at all. the church considers such marraiges to be invalid. quite a huge difference. irregular applies that union exists, when the only union in such a relation is adultery.

as to your bit on my not mentioning not to take communion i have two replies: my only recommendation was to not get married until after the wedding, and i implied the consequences of getting remarried. it goes without saying, knowing the consequences, that it is morally wrong to continue communion after such an act.

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 08, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

Maria,

It seems the inept procedure at the current Tribunl is the problem. Often Tribunals are overloaded beyond the capacity of their resources. Others Tribunals are available and you don't have to wait to file a second petition. Find another Tribunal and ask in advance about the pendency. But on another note, I caution you that the only real solution is to seek the truth. If your marriage is valid in the eyes of God, then that is your position in life. If that is the case, it would be better for you to seek fulfillment in life by other avenues than a conjugal life with someone not your husband. Do pray for and forgive your Ex for what ever he has done. I hope I have been able to help. Peace to you.

-- Pat Delaney (patrickrdelaney@yahoo.com), June 11, 2003.

Response to If still married in Catholic church can get married in Protestant Church?

maria, im glad to know you arent mislead by ricks unwillingness to make a moral stance.

the short and long of it is this... yes, protestants will be willing to marry you, but that would be an invalid marraige and would constitute adultery on your part, thus removing you from the communion until such time as you correct the situation.

if you truly love this man, you will take the time to do this right, get a proper marraige after an annulment. like stated before, go to a different tribunal if this one is taking so long.

-- paul (dontsendmemail@notanaddress.com), June 12, 2003.