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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.
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Q&A

If I married a non-baptized person in a civil wedding, do I need an annulment to remarry?

Jim Blackburn

Question:

My first wife and I were married by the justice of the peace. I was baptized in a Baptist church, but she was not baptized at all. Do I have to go through an annulment process?

Answer:

Since neither you nor your wife was Catholic when you got married, there were no special permissions or dispensations required of either of you. The Church, therefore, presumes your marriage to be valid. If you wish to attempt marriage again, you will first need to have your marriage investigated for nullity (i.e., get an annulment) to be certain that it was invalid. If it was, then you should be free to attempt marriage again.

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