Expert: Fr. Timothy Johnson - 9/19/2007

Question
QUESTION: My wife's father has asked her to provide a marriage certificate and death certificate for her mother so that he can get his first marriage annulled and take communion.  According to my wife, her father abandoned her and her mother many years ago, divorced the mother and married someone else.  My wife is worried about what an annulment would mean to her and her brother although I understand Canon Law states that their legitimate status does not change in the Church.  I fail, however, to understand what grounds might be used to justify such an annulment, whether the children of that original marriage are usually consulted or involved in any way, and why the death of the original spouse doesn't make this a moot point anyway.  Can you enlighten me please?

ANSWER: Dear Stephen:
Thank you for your question.
Since I do not work on a Diocesan Tribunal, I do not have the competency in this matter to give any particulars as to how or why an annulment might be granted in the case you describe.  However, you do understand correctly that the civil effects of a "marriage" hold force, and there is no question of illegitimacy of children under the law born into such circumstances.
As far as I know, the children would not typically be consulted in such a matter; but instead, the adult parties that would have been involved in some way in the marriage being looked at through a forensic analysis of the many factors and circumstances involved in the past at the time the marriage was attempted.
As for the reception of Holy Communion, one must of course be in the state-of-grace, and disposed to receive it with Catholic and divine Faith.  If one is single, and not commiting sins of sexual intimacy outside of a valid and lawful marriage, one may approach Holy Communion.
The principle is established bu Chrst Himself Who raised the dignity of marriage to a Sacrament: "What God has joined, let no man put assunder."
Perhaps the best term to use in the case of annulment is to see it as a declaration that the "marriage" did not have sacramental force, i.e. it was not truly a sacrament.

Fr. Timothy Johnson

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My wife's father had divorced and remarried long before my wife's mother passed away.  He told my wife that he wants to take Communion and therefore needs the annulment.  Is this an appropriate action for him to take and doesn't the death of his original wife make it unnecessary?

Answer
Hi, again, Stephen:

The marriage bond (contract or covenant) ceases with the death of one of the spouses.
I suppose that he may wish to make a good sacramental Confession, and talk about some of his personal matters.  As far as you describe the case, he may not need an annulment from the first marriage; but there could still be issues with the current marriage.
Was his current wife free to marry?  In other words, had she been previously married, and former spouse still living?  Is your wife's father married in a lawful marriage in the Catholic Church?  Because if he got married outside the authority of the Church, then he still may not approach to receive Holy Communion until he takes care of that situation.
Unless your wife's father has done something about the validity of his current marriage, then I would have to assume that he did marry outside the Church, since at the time he married his present wife, his former wife was still living - though she is now deceased.

Fr. Timothy Johnson