My husband is not catholic and was married once before we got married. We were married by a Lutheran minister because I was not a practicing Catholic at the time and my husband did not want to go through an annulment. We have been married 22 years and since that time, his first wife has been married twice. She wanted to get married a 4th time to a Catholic so she had her first 3 marriages annulled. I have since returned to the Church and we had our marriage blessed by my parish priest at a special Valentine's Day event. Are we officially married in the eyes of the Catholic church?

-- Patricia Green (bronco7@ukans.edu), February 27, 2001

Answers

Dear Patricia, --How is it you're returning to the Church? Do you understand ''blessed by a priest for Valentine's Day'' is not the sacrament of Matrimony? You can't just phone it in.

If you really wish to be married in the Church, a meeting with your Catholic priest is required, so you can find out whether there are any obstacles or not. Don't be afraid; and I would suggest going to another priest. Not that one who ''blessed'' your other union.

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), February 28, 2001.

Jmj

Hello, Patricia and Eugene.
Eugene, I think that you may have misunderstood what Patricia wrote. It was somewhat complicated, and I had to read it a couple of times before I fully understood. And I think that the answer to her question is, "yes," she and her husband are validly married.

As I understand what you wrote (and please correct me, if I'm wrong):
1. Before you met your husband, you were a Catholic, but at some point, you stopped practicing your faith.
2. You went through a wedding ceremony before a Lutheran minister without the blessing of the Catholic Church. Not only that, but your husband had previously been married. Therefore your marriage was not valid.
3. Then a key event happened. The woman to whom your husband seemed to have been validly married (his first "wife") asked the Catholic Church to look into her union with your husband. The tribunal declared that they had never validly celebrated a sacramental marriage. That "Decree of Nullity" left her free validly to marry a Catholic man, and simultaneously left you free to be married validly to your husband.
4. You returned to being a practicing Catholic and discussed the situation with your pastor, perhaps showing him tribunal documents that explained the case.
5. The pastor knew that the Code of Canon Law has provisions for dealing with these situations -- i.e., "curing" and blessing your union with your husband, so that it can be considered a valid sacramental marriage. I think that you were saying that this was celebrated in a ceremonial form on St. Valentine's Day.

Have I described this accurately? (If so, Eugene, I believe that everything is "kosher." Please check with your own pastor if you have some uncertainty. If you're going to do that, it might be good to print this thread out after Patricia replies to me.)

St. James, pray for us. Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 01, 2001.