Expert: Fr. Timothy Johnson - 4/7/2009

Question
I am a Roman Catholic and my Fiancé is a Hindu who was granted a divorce by the court. His ex wife is also a Hindu.

When we decided to get married we approached my local parish and told them the entire situation and they priest in charge told us as long as we have the divorce papers he could get married in church. Hence we went ahead and scheduled the wedding for May.

In April when I approached the church again to fill in all necessary papers they told us that we couldn’t get married in church and that we had to take permission from the Bishop who would in turn send the documents to Rome to take permission from the church.

Then we approached the Bishop’s house to enquire about the same. He told us there was a long process. My Fiancé has to first put in an application for annulment of his first marriage. However here is the law of the country has granted a divorce then why does the Church have to dissolve this marriage? Then he would have to give details of his first marriage and how did the breakdown of marriage take place. Then they would contact his ex wife to take her statement. After that they need to ascertain that he’s not a catholic and hence would have to contact all the churches where he’s ever lived to make sure that he’s not registered as a catholic.

This process takes min 6 months. However based on what the priest told us the first time we have go ahead with all the preparations and the church is not even helping us. We have no option but to look at getting a civil marriage done and moving away from the church.


Answer
Hi, Lisa:
Thanks for the question.
I am sorry that the first Priest whom you contacted did not know some of the basics he really ought to know about Catholic Church Marriage Law.
From what you describe, the process undertaken through the Bishop to get papers processed and expedited in Rome, it sounds as though they were taking the route of "Pauline Privilege" - i.e. dissolution of the bond of a previous non-sacramental marriage.
As for the request to undertake the local "anullment process"; I am wondering whether this step was "proactive" in the sense of getting your fiance "free-to-marry" by whichever process gets completed first: 1. anullment through a local diocesan marriage tribunal, or 2. the "Pauline Privilege" granted through the Holy See (Rome).

I am certainly very sorry that all preparations have been made, and that now you feel as though you must go through with a civil marriage outside the Church.  I can only recommend and encourage you to be patient and persevering in the process of hopefully obtaining the dissolution of the previous non-sacramental bond through Rome.
In the meantime, of course, the Church cannot have one of her Sacred Ministers officiate at what would be an unlawful marriage.
But I should certainly hope that when and if everything "goes through" with the dissolution or anullment that you will be able to approach the Church to get a "convalidation" or "sanation" of the civil marriage.
I guess that the question comes down ultimately to your own practice and response of FAITH to the teachings of Jesus Christ the Savior through the Catholic Church He established on St. Peter.  Your situation is not entirely unheard of, nor is it by any means entirely hopeless, if you REALLY and TRULY desire to have a lawful marriage by the Authority of the Catholic Church.  If you long for the Holy Eucharist and a full and integral practice of the Catholic Faith, then I hope you will work through the process.  I wish you the very best... God bless you!

Fr. Timothy Johnson