Topic: Do divorced non-Catholics need annulments to marry Catholics?
Source of this posting: Moderator response to emailed question
Date originally posted: March 10, 2002
Moderator who originally posted this source: J. Ruffo
Question: Hello! My friend, Dawn, married recently for the first time. She is Catholic. Dawn married Brad, a non-Catholic. Brad had been married before to Norma, also a non-Catholic. Brad and Norma are legally divorced, but Dawn does not think she can take Communion because Brad and Norma did not get their marriage annulled. I thought that when non-Catholics married and divorced an annulment was not an option. Dawn and Brad did not have a Catholic wedding. I have 2 questions: 1.) Can Dawn take Communion? 2.) Do non-Catholics need annulments to marry Catholics? Thank you so much! God Bless.
Answer:
Dear Nan,
Wow! What a complex question! Without having all the details of this case, and not getting into all of the technicalities of the Canon Law governing marriage, I’ll try to clear up some of these issues for you, Nan.
Dawn was married to Brad outside the Roman Catholic Church, that is without the Church’s permission. Rules governing the marriage of Catholics would apply to Dawn, a baptized Roman Catholic, and to any non-Catholic wanting to marry a Catholic.
If Brad was a baptized Christian validly married to another baptized Christian, we as Catholics recognize the validity of that marriage, and ‘yes’ Brad would need his marriage to Norma annulled in the eyes of the Church before he’d be free to enter into another union. Dawn is not able to marry Brad in the Church if Brad is still validly married to Norma. The priest preparing Dawn and Brad for their wedding would have told them all this.
In answer to your more specific questions: According the rules of our Church, Dawn should not be receiving Holy Communion. Her marriage, although legal in the eyes of the State, is not recognized as valid in the eyes of the Catholic Church.
A non-Catholic would need an annulment from a prior marriage when the non-Catholic wants to enter a new marriage with a Roman Catholic. The rules governing the marriage of Catholics also apply to someone wanting to marry a Catholic. An non-Catholic marrying another non-Catholic in a second or subsequent marriage would not come under the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church and thus would not need the Catholic Church annulment.
Father John