How many more times will ill-informed people, who clearly know nothing about Catholicism, confidently assure us that Boris’ previous marriages “don’t count” or “are not recognised” because the previous marriages were not in the Catholic Church?
You must know that that is bollocks, surely?
Of course the Catholic Church recognises previous non-Catholic marriages. That is the case whether those marriages took place in another Christian church, in another faith or in a civil ceremony.
That is because if one person has entered into a marriage that is considered to be legally valid, the Catholic Church would still consider that person to be married, even after the person is divorced. The only way around it is to secure an annulment, and as previous well-informed posters have noted, that is not easy.
How do I know this? Perhaps because I’m a baptised Catholic who married a divorced man 14 years ago. I couldn’t get married in a Catholic Church, despite speaking to a priest and the bishop. They were understanding but it was a no go without an annulment, and since my husband had been married for 15 years and had a son of 14, it would have been difficult, to say nothing of unfair, to argue any grounds for annulment!
Both told me, off the record, that they thought it was rather unfair that I couldn’t have a nuptial mass when, to quote the priest, he had people waltzing in with three children outside marriage by three different fathers, wanting to marry a man who had fathered children outside marriage by several women, neither of whom ever went near a church but who wanted all the Catholic bells and whistles. There are no grounds to refuse, if one party had been baptised Catholic. They also told me that sometimes the non-Catholic divorced party lied about having been married before: they were usually found out, but not always.
I accepted it and married in the Church of England, which ironically was easy because my decidedly non-religious husband had been baptised in the C of E. Not all C of E vicars are keen to marry Catholics.
I suspect that Boris and Carrie have had a civil ceremony then a blessing in the cathedral. I’m interested in finding out. I’ll be furious if they have been allowed a full Catholic wedding ceremony, and if so I’ll be writing to Cardinal Nichols to find out (1) exactly what grounds they based the permission on and (2) why it’s one rule for a wealthy woman, who is not a practising Catholic, marrying a twice-divorced adulterer and another for normal women, who are practising Catholics, marrying a divorced man.
Which would be quite an own goal for the Catholic Church. I won’t be the only Catholic watching this story with interest.