[sitetest]

Dear dangus,

Two baptized non-Catholic Christians who marry in an ostensibly Christian ceremony are presumed by the Catholic Church to have entered a sacramental marriage. Should the marriage be dissolved civilly in divorce, and either party wish to marry within the Catholic Church, a Catholic marriage tribunal must judge the prior marriage to be sacramentally null.

Sinkspur, Hermann, if I didn't get that quite right, please offer your corrections. Thanks.


sitetest

[sinkspur]

You are correct, sir. And welcome back. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your dad, especially, and with the rest of your family.

[dangus]

Thanks... Actually, I did infer that much but your confirmation that I was grasping that right was helpful.

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

What would be the criteria for the tribunal judging such a marriage sacramentally null?

Becky

[dangus]

OK, so here's the questions:

I've known the Church recognizes that people who marry outside the Church to be legitimately married. Hence, if they convert, they are not sinning by having relations with each other before they get married in the Church. But if they are divorced, I would've thought the Church would automatically accept that since the marriage took place in an institution that allowed divorce, the Church would accept the divorce as evidence that the couple did not believe in the permanence of marriage, and would be annulled simply by the fact they got remarried.

If they haven't been annulled, then isn't the second marriage invalid? Can they even continue to have marital relations until they get their annulment? As long as there's the potential for the 1st marriage to not be annulled, how can they believe that the second marriage did occur?

[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

A Catholic is obligated to follow the form for the sacrament of marriage as laid out by the Church.

This is what I thought, but I was referring to the example you gave:

Two baptized non-Catholic Christians who marry in an ostensibly Christian ceremony are presumed by the Catholic Church to have entered a sacramental marriage.

This sort of thing is what confuses me about Catholic beliefs. It seems they have all angles covered. They call a marriage sacramental that did not have a priest presiding, but when the couple want an annulment, it can be annulled on the grounds that a priest did not preside. Now how can that make sense?

Becky