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Dear visualops,

I am not a canon lawyer, but as I understand it... if want to come back to the Catholic Church (which by the way is awesome!!!)... you need to do a couple of things.

First of all, you can start attending Mass immediately.

There is no problem with you attending Mass, but there is a catch... (and a lot of people get upset at the Church for this but it makes sense) you can not receive Eucharist at Mass unless you go to Reconciliation (Confession with a Priest). Once you goto Confession, you must abstain from sexual relations from your new husband.

There is a couple of reason why this is...

1. As the Church sees it, you are still married to your first husband... and you are committing adultery with your second.

2. You may want to request for an annulment from your first husband... this does not mean that you will get one...

The Church will look to see if you have any grounds to say that your marriage to your first husband was not a marriage at all... (there are a lot of reasons why, but I will leave that to the canon lawyer)

While you are still seeking the annulment, you still must refrain from sexual relations with your second husband...

3. If the annulment goes through, then get your marriage blessed by the Church and both you and your husband can receive the Sacraments (provided that your husband converts)

That I believe is it in a nut shell, but I will give you a web site that can help you out...

God Bless!

http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/conference.htm

P.S. - you can search for annulment in the Canon Law section... some of the bins are full right now.

Again, God Bless

Athanasius, Unless visualops received a dispensation to marry in a Greek Orthodox Church in front of a Greek Orthodox priest, she did not contract a valid Catholic marriage. That is Canon Law.

Her current marriage is invalid, in any event.

Visualops, send me an e-mail, giving me the name of your diocese, and I will send you the name of someone in your tribunal to work through all this.

The present husband will just LOVE that bit of the whole deal. Again, I mean no disrespect to any Catholics by making these comments, but if she is legally/civiliy married I'm gonna bet (assuming they have a happy marriage and are dedicated to one another, of course), *abstaining* from sexual relations is not going to be a positive experience for either of them.

My understaing of Catholicism (sp?)is minimal and I'm not active in any church at present myself. However, I find it incredible to expect or ask a wife or husband to abstain from one of the greatest gifts God has given us in order to *return* to a church, regardless of denomination. Intellectually this *almost* makes sense if the couple in question has been recently married or married for less than a couple of years...almost. But if this couple has been together 5 to 10 years in a faithful, dedicated, loving marriage...I'm sorry, I don't see how God Almighty is going to give a rat's ass except to continue to Bless their union.

Now, if this couple was part of the "I'm on my 4th marriage" club...I might feel differently. However, I don't get that feeling from reading this person's original post. I know as an man in an extremely happy marriage myself I would laugh in the face of someone who suggested my wife and I had to abstain from sexual relations...unless it was a medical situation. Something about *becoming one flesh* together is, IMO HOLY Under God and trumps a ruling by a religious heirarchy run by people who've sworn themselves to a chaste life.

Anyway....just my 2 cents.