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Hi Reggie,
I am so sorry for your loss of so many friends and relatives to the faith.
Your sister-in-law is not committing incest.
Under current canon law,
the Catholic Church does not permit marriage between first cousins.
For
Catholics, such a marriage is not valid, but it is an ecclesiastical requirement,
not a divine law. This prohibition may therefore be dispensed from, but
only rarely and only for grave reasons.
The prohibition is, however, not
binding on non-Catholics, so a non-Catholic couple who were first cousins
and who married could convert without a problem with their marriage. A
Catholic who has a civil marriage is not in a valid marriage, unless the
Catholic has formally left the faith, which your sister-in-law appears
to have done.
The couple you describe can certainly [return to/convert to]
the Catholic faith, and would not necessarily need a dispensation as they
would probably be considered validly married — but this is a question that
can easily be answered by the pastor.
Hope this helps,
Mary Ann
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