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"Church Marriage"-Interested Mike
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Hi, guys —
My partner and I were both born, raised and still are Catholics, and began a relationship three months ago.
I have been separated from my wife for three years, and she has been separated from her husband for ten years. We are still legally married to our respective spouses but both of us were never married in a Catholic Church. We are not living with our respective spouses. My partner and I are not living together although we see each other at least one day a week.
We are in the process of applying to divorce our respective spouses with the intention to marry in a Catholic parish because we want God to bless our union.
My questions are:
- Do we need to be legally divorced in order to be married in a Catholic church?
- If yes, what prevents the Church from performing the Sacrament of Marriage on us?
- Although we both were not married to our spouses in the Church, are we living in a sinful relationship because we are not yet married to each other?
Thank you for taking time to answer my questions.
Kind regards,
Mike
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In order for God to bless our future union, do we need a divorce and is our relationship still sinful? }
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Mike replied:
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Dear Mike,
You said:
My questions are:
- Do we need to be legally divorced in order to be married in a Catholic church?
- If yes, what prevents the Church from performing the Sacrament of Marriage on us?
- Although we both were not married to our spouses in the Church, are we living in a sinful relationship because we are not yet married to each other?
The best advice I can provide is to seek out a faithful Catholic priest who can counsel you and answer questions based on your specific situation. I don't mean to dodge giving you a direct answer but there are probably many nuances to your specific situation that have accidentally been omitted.
- To answer your first question, Yes.
- Answering your second question: Jesus told us that Marriage is between one man and one woman with the intent to bring forward new life (children) in the world in order to advance and promote the next generation of Catholic Christians.
For a previous (marriage) to be blessed in the Church, She has to discern whether a true marriage, according to Jesus and His Church, occurred or not. . . . otherwise, His Church could end up blessing bigamy/polygamy.
In order to determine this, each diocese has a marriage tribunal that can access each person's previous and current marital situation and make a proper determination as to whether the marriage was a true, valid marriage or whether it was not a true, valid marriage according to the Church. If it was not, the Church makes a declaration of nullity, also known as an annulment, that a marriage never occurred.
- The answer to your last question is Yes. The Church logically assumes that a man and woman living together are having conjugal relations and this should only be happening within a valid marriage, otherwise it would be gravely sinful.
Your questions have been asked many, many times and you can find additional (information |answers) in our database. Just go here and search on the appropriate keywords.
For example:
Using keywords: can we get married in the Catholic Church
I hope this helps,
Mike
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