Expert: Tom Schott - 6/8/2006

Question
Greetings,

Evelyn Waugh married in the Anglican church, then divorced; he later became a Catholic but had to seek an annulment before he could marry as a Catholic. Or so I understand.

My question: cannot a divorced Anglican who becomes a Catholic freely marry another Catholic? What about, say, a divorced Muslim who becomes a Catholic? Islam specifically recognises divorce - the husband just has to say "I divorce you three times.

Thank you,

Simon

Answer
Simon,

In answer to your first question, no. The Church recognizes the baptisms of all Christian denominations. It considers marriages between baptized persons to be sacramental unless it can be shown otherwise. So Mr. Waugh's marriage in the Anglican church had to be annuled before he could marry in the Catholic Church.

By the same token, the Church does not consider marriages between non-Christians to be sacramental, and therefore they would be exempt from any annulment considerations.

Deacon Tom