New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan denounces Obama gay marriage stance

[rug]

16. That's a big topic.

The Catholic Church has a very specific definition of a Catholic sacramental language, e.g., if you're Catholic, you must be married within the Catholic Church (I'm not), etc. The whole annullment process looks to see if any of those requirements were not present and, if not, it is declared null.

However, it also recognizes the sacramental nature of a marriage between two baptized Christians of another denomination. If a Catholic wants to marry a divorced non-Catholic Christian, that prior marriage must also be examined to see if it was a nullity within Church law. If not, no sacramental marriage is permitted.

But for your larger and more interesting question, natural marrage, the rules on sacramental marriage apply only to Catholics or baptized Christians. Natural marriages are considered to be valid marriages, although they are not considered to be sacramental marriages. (All seven of the Catholic sacraments are available only to those who choose to belong to the Church.)

Now if a Catholic wishes to marry a previously divorced nonChristian who had a valid natural (but nonsacramental) marriage? There would not be an anullment process, because it was not a sacramental marriage that required an anullment, but it was a valid marriage that required dissoultion before a sacramental marriage could take place. Then the Pauline or Petrine Privilege would apply.

I'm starting to wade too deeply through this, so here's a link (see #39 and #40 for the Pauline and Petrine Privileges):

http://www.archchicago.org/departments/tribunal/faq.shtm