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Hi, Scott —
Thanks for your question.
Certainly the Church would want to look at the marriage. A marriage is
presumed to be valid until otherwise determined. The place to start
is with your local priest. He may not be able to definitively determine the
validity of your marriage, but he would be
able to put you in touch with the proper authorities for your situation. Assuming an annulment
is needed, the Church will then have to determine if one can be granted.
Along with a possible annulment, your future Catholic wife would need a
dispensation from her bishop to marry a non-Catholic. These are fairly
routine.
If I were I counseling her in this matter, I would strongly advise her
against proceeding with the possible marriage. Assuming she is a practicing,
faithful Catholic, she is going to want to bring up children and be open to as many children God wants to give
both of you. The decisions she makes in the marriage are going be based
on Catholic values. If she doesn't want these things, then she's not really
a practicing, faithful Catholic and that begs the question:
- Why bother
with a Catholic wedding if you're not really a Catholic?
A practicing,
faithful Catholic has a very different world view than a nominal Christian who
only consider themselves Christian because they were baptized. This may seem
harsh but it is true. The Apostle Paul warns Christians
not to be yoked to unbelievers. (2 Corinthians 6:14)
Yes, you were baptized, yet you rejected
your Christian faith and became an apostate in becoming a Muslim,
when you denied your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
The Good news is there is a remedy for that. I would invite you to talk
your future wife's priest about the [Christian/Catholic] faith. Perhaps if
you understood what you left behind, you may be interested in being more
than a nominal Christian.
I would encourage you to go beyond doing the
minimum in order to have a Church wedding. Rather, take another look at
the faith into which you were baptized; then take a deeper look into the fullness
of the Christian faith that can only be found in the Catholic Church.
If you are interested, a great way to learn the basic teachings of the Catholic faith is to get a cheap copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on Amazon.
John D.
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