Expert: Tom Schott - 5/26/2009

Question
My Catholic daughter is serious about marrying a Christian man, who has been married previously in a civil ceremony and now divorced. It is my understanding that a civil un ion is not valid in the eyes of the Church. Therefore it never existed even though he divorced. Am I correct? I believe he does not attend a church, but his family was "orthodox." That's all I know about that. Can they marry in the Catholic Church?

Answer
Marcia,

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, but I had to consult my experts on this one. I append in its entirety the answer I received from a gentleman who used to serve on the marriage tribunal in this archdiocese.

Okay.  If he were not Orthodox (I’m assuming he is baptized), there would have to be a formal case.  We believe it to be a valid until proven otherwise.  In the Latin Church, we have lack of form cases.  Baptized Catholics must be married before a priest, deacon, or a lawfully deputed lay person and two witnesses. If this is not operative, the marriage is considered invalid because of the lack of canonical form (the above mentioned requirements).   In Orthodoxy, the marriage can only be valid if blessed by the priest hence deacons do not perform marriages in the Eastern tradition.  If he is a baptized Orthodox Christian and because of our respect for Orthodoxy, if he married in a civil ceremony, that would be a lack of form as well because of the absence of the blessing.  To process the case he would need a copy of his baptismal certificate, the marriage license, and the divorce decree.  There is s form that would have to be filled out (a simple front and back page and the case can be processed as soon as it is received).  This has just come up recently in the Tribunal and canonical experts(of which I am not, I’m just a general practitioner) share this opinion.