Hello. I'm a 51 year old male, baptised into a protestant religon and married at 17 to my "high school" sweetheart. We eloped and were married by a clerk of the court. We divorced 5 years later and several years after that, I married a second time to a Lutheran and in a Lutheran church. We were married for 17 years and divorced 7 years ago. I am remarried to a catholic woman. Our life togeher is wonderful and we have a beautiful daughter. The one aspect of my life that is missing is a deeper relationship with God. I've been "attracted" to the Catholic Church for some time. I find the Church's history, sacraments and "structure" are what I am looking for. I have started the RICA process and was preparing for the Rite of Election when I learned that I would have to go through the annulment process. I am prepared to do this. My question is: Will I need to have both marriages annuled? I totally understand the necessity of submitting my second marriage to the process, but since my first marriage was well over 30 years ago and was not a union wittnessed by the Church, do I need to go through a process for the 1st marriage? I would prefer not to have to do this, especially since I have limited documents to even submit. Yes, I know I could discuss this with my Parish Priest, but frankly I'm embarrassed about talking about my being married twice before, especially when the first was when I was so young. I thank you for your feedback.

-- Leo Gamms (consult0724@earthlink.net), February 07, 2005

Answers

The ashort answser is, "Yes". Both mariages require annulment.

-- ZAROVE (ZAROFF3@JUNO.COM), February 07, 2005.