Hi Thomas,

Sorry for the delay in responding!

The Catholic Church does not recognize divorce; if you got married in the Catholic Church and then divorced and remarried, the second union would not be considered a valid marriage as the Church (and God) would still consider you to be married to your first wife.

If there was a reason that the first marriage was never valid in the first place, you can get a declaration of nullity (commonly called an annulment) for the first marriage, which would enable you to get your second marriage blessed and recognized as valid.

There are many reasons why the first marriage could be declared null; say:

• if you intended to never have children
• if one of you did not consider marriage to be lifelong and exclusive
• psychological reasons
• and so forth.

It's important for you to talk to your pastor about your situation.

Eric