You know somebody has to ask....

Now that gay marriage is legal in MA, and assuming it stays legal, if a gay couple divorces, and one decides to "go straight", is the gay marriage going to have to go through the annullment process? It's a civil marriage, and civil marriages are presumed valid....

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 19, 2004

Answers

Civil marriages meet the essential requirements for the Church to presume it is valid. Gay marriages do not. There are no grounds for the Church to presume that there is a marriage. You can use the name, but it is still not a marriage since it lacks the fundamental requirements to be a marrige.

Dano

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), May 19, 2004.

The church cannot ever recognise a gay 'marriage' as God's plan is that men and women become one in marriage. No marriage can be deemed to have existed. There would be no doubt as to the validity of such a 'marriage', as all such situations would be morally wrong. Therefore, no Church annulment process would ever be necessary for a gay 'marriage'.

A civil divorce would have to be obtained of course if the person then wanted to marry a person of the opposite sex in church, to satisfy legal requirements.

-- Sara (sara_catholic_forum@yahoo.co.uk), May 19, 2004.

The Church doesn't really "recognize" civil marriages between men and women, but still require annullments for them....

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), May 19, 2004.

GT so called 'gay marriage' is simply a term for a type of sin. We recognize it as an intrinsically sinful behavior that require repentance. So if you want to stop, repent and sin no more.

Since it was never anything but an excuse for sinful acts, all you need to do is repent and sin no more. No canon law papers need be filed.

-bill

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45-nospam@hotmail.com), May 19, 2004.

God Bless This Country! Amen

Or, Lord, come soon because I can't take much more....

-- MaryLu (mlc327@juno.comq), May 19, 2004.

No annullment would be necessary. Our definition of marriage includes the idea of one man and one woman. A "marriage" between two people of the same sex would not be recognized at all.

Hope that's helpful.

-- Fr. Mike Skrocki, JCD (cand) (abounamike@aol.com), May 19, 2004.