I was married in Church of Ireland to a prod and after 7 years divorced him for adultery.I have now met and plan to marry a catholic in the catholic church ,i am a catholic myself.What i want to know is can i marry him and would a priest have any objections to marrying us.

-- grace gallagher (gracegoogle@aol.com), February 25, 2005

Answers

You can marry in the Catholic Church if your first marriage was not valid in the eyes of the Church. That question will have to be settled by a marriage tribunal. You will have to submit the details of your first marriage to the tribunal, and if they determine that there are just grounds for declaring your first marriage invalid, you can then marry. If they do not find your first marriage invalid you cannot marry in the Church because you are already married.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), February 25, 2005.

If you were Catholic when you got married in the Church of Ireland, and Church of Ireland is not Catholic, then your first marriage is invalid due to Lack of Canonical Form, unless you subsequently sought to have the marriage validated or if you defected from the Catholic Church by a formal act. These facts will have to be established by the tribunal before you can even think about getting married in the Catholic Church. A priest's objections are of no consequence as he has no authority in the matter; if you are found to be free of any marriage bond by a tribunal, then you have a right to get married in the Church.

-- Fr. Paul (pjdoucet@hotmail.com), February 25, 2005.

Fr. Paul, I mean no disrespect, but the first sentence of your message is very difficult to understand, because you used and an "if" at the start and an "unless" and "if" at the end. You also omitted a key element, namely, whether or not her Catholic bishop allowed the marriage to occur within a Protestant church.

For Grace's benefit, I'd like to try rephrasing what you told her, while also adding the missing element.

A. Grace, the tribunal will (probably quickly) determine that your "marriage" was invalid, due to "lack of canonical form," if all of the following were true:
1. You were Catholic on your wedding day.
2. You lacked your bishop's "dispensation" (special permission) to marry a non-Catholic (or you lacked dispensation to marry in a non- Catholic ceremony).
3. You did get married in such a ceremony.
4. You did not subsequently have your marriage "validated" by the Catholic Church.

B. If points 1, 2, and 3, above, were true, but you later DID have your marriage validated, then the lack of form was "cured," and your marriage would be presumed to be valid until proved otherwise. Therefore, the tribunal would determine the validity/nullity of your "marriage" on grounds other than "form." That would take much longer.

C. Grace, if you were always Protestant before the wedding, or if you "formally defected" from the Catholic faith at some point prior to the wedding ceremony, then you were not subject to "canonical form," so your marriage would be presumed to be valid until proved otherwise. Therefore, the tribunal would determine the validity/nullity of your "marriage" on grounds other than "form." That too would take much longer than a "lack of form" decision.

-- Geo. (McFarland@spanky.com), February 25, 2005.

"whether or not her Catholic bishop allowed the marriage"

True Spanky, thanks for pointing it out. My sentence makes sense (no pun intended); I guess I am just too used to talking with others used to legal language amd such.

-- Fr. Paul (pjdoucet@hotmail.com), February 25, 2005.

Thanks for all who replied to my question.I think now because i never recieved a blessing from the chapel that i am therefore allowed to marry my partner in the chapel.

-- grace (gracegoogle@aol.com), February 27, 2005.