Oh, here goes:

I was a protestant, so was my husband, when we married in a civil ceremony. AFTER the marriage, we both converted to Catholicism. We have since divorced and both remarried non-catholics. I have been told I need an annulment - I will never understand why, but ok, that's not the tricky part - here it is:

After my divorce and remarriage, I joined not one, but two different denominations. I understand that formally makes me no longer a Catholic, but now I want to come back to the Catholic Church. What do I need to do? Even if allowed to rejoin I still can't take Communion, right? They're still gonna make me get an annulment, yes? I cannot believe how hard this is!! Thanks for listening.

Peace, Elizabeth

-- Elizabeth Lafferty (auberginecow@hotmail.com), July 04, 2004

Answers

You must talk to your local Priest then you will know what lies ahead./. Peace be with you.................

-- Andrew m Tillcock (drewmeister7@earthlink.net), July 04, 2004.

Did you think that belonging to a church was a simple bus drive???

-- Ventrino Pigment (zucchinibull@aol.com), July 05, 2004.

As I read your message the following seems to be the case:

1. If you and your first husband were *baptized* Protestants when you married, your marriage is considered a sacramental marriage and so indisoluable. Why? Because the Church does not demand that non- Catholic Christians get married in a Catholic ceremony to be truly and sacramentally married in the eyes of God. The Catholic Church considers marriages between baptized Protestants to be just as good, just as sacramental, and most importantly, just as permanent as marriages between (baptized) Catholics.

2. That you both converted had no effect on the sacramental and indisoluable marriage that already existed.

3. The latter marriages of either of you are irrelevent to your problem. The Church considers them "invalid" because you were still married to your first husband and no one can have more than one wife or husband.

4. The subsequent conversions to other religions or denominations had no effect on the first marriage. A marriage is a marriage and stays that way.

5. So you are still married to your first husband in the eyes of the Church. Unless your first husband has died (I assume not), the only way to be married to someone new in the Church (after your return, I assume), is to have the first marriage declared to have been null from the start. That is what is called an annulment. Whether you have a good case to petition for an annulment, only the priest who receives you back into the Church can say.

-- Catholic Observer (nospam@notmail.com), July 05, 2004.