Hello. My boyfriend and I have been together for 5 years and we have a son together. Both of us are catholic and both of us have been married before. He was married in a Catholic church and I was married through the court house only. We now want to get married and I was hoping for a Catholic wedding since I know he is my soul mate. Is this possible because of our previous marriages? If so, what do we need to do to make it possible? Thank you so much for your help.

Karla

-- Karla Chavarria (kaycee89@earthlink.net), October 12, 2004

Answers

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-- (bump@bump.bump), October 12, 2004.

You will need to submit the details of your former marriages to a Catholic marriage tribunal, for determination of validity. Your parish priest can help you get started on this - or you can call your diocesan office of family life, or marital affairs, or whatever they call it in your diocese. You can find it in the phone book under "diocese of ...". Make sure you are calling the Catholic diocesan office, not Episcopalian or other. Your own marriage should qualify for a writ of nullity if you were married by civil decree, but you will still need to obtain that statement from the tribunal. The validity or nullity of his marriage will depend on various circumstances present at the time of the wedding. If both marriages are determined by the tribunal to be invalid (null), you will be free to marry in the Church.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), October 12, 2004.