If you are knowledgeable on the Catholic Church...

[Nikhedonia]

Could you please provide some guidance on this scenario?

Mary is christened in a Catholic Church, but confirmed in the Church of England. Mary marries John, (who has not been baptised) in a Church of England church.

Mary and John get divorced and Mary meets David who is Catholic and has never been married. Mary and David both attend Catholic Church together now.

Could Mary and David get married in a Catholic Church? If yes, what restrictions would there be?

I think that the Catholic church doesn't recognise divorce full stop regardless of where the marriage took place, so I would say that they wouldn't be allowed to remarry.

There is a catholic marriage annulment but the conditions for that are rather confusing.

I think they would only be able to get married if Mary had her first marriage annulled.

x-post. Yy annulment is confusing and the conditions are very specific but Mary would need to look into that process. She'd also need agreement from her first husband as iirc he has to sign papers to agree to the annulment.

Mary can marry David in the Catholic Church, providing she didn't receive a Dispensation from Canonical Form to allow her to marry John in the Church of England. Mary would have had to sign papers for this and the bishop in the diocese would have had to grant it before the wedding.

Oh, and Mary would have had to receive a Dispensation from Disparity of Worship, alog with Dispensation from Canonical Form.

I think they would as the initial marriage wasn't in a catholic church. They def could if first marriage was a civil one. This is based on my Catholic Teacher Training course though so not in-depth!

I concur that an annulment could be granted due to the previous marriage being CofE and therefore "not occurring in the eyes of the CC"
Mary could also conceivably plead ignorance of the complexities involved which would help, particularly as she is a regular church goer, and will therefore have a priest who knows her.

A Declaration of Nullity (commonly known as an annulment) isn't necessary. Mary should speak to her priest.

If John was not baptised then Mary can get the marriage annulled regardless of whether she received dispensation at the time. It’s the Pauline principle I think. You don’t have to remain married to someone unbaptised.

The Pauline Principle may apply, had she been validly married/received a Dispensation If she wasn't/didn't then no Declaration of Nullity is needed. The priest or Catholic Marriage Tribunal can look at the precise details and advise.

Sorry, I should have said Pauline Privilege.

Depends if the church will recognise the C of E marriage. If it was in a Catholic Church then definitely not. But not sure of the rules for C of E marriages. A friend of mine is on my diocesan marriage tribunal so I could ask hi.

Sorry, confused myself - the Petrine Privilege would be at play, not the Pauline Privelege. Bot that it matters in this case.

The Catholic Church recognises a C of E marriage. Mary will need an annulment.

The Catholic Church only recognises a marriage between two non l-Catholics in the C of E, unless the Dispensations I mentioned were granted by the Catholic bishop.

I deal with this stuff on a daily basis.

She would need an annulment of the previous marriage, or for it to be deemed invalid by the Church.

Thanks so much all.

No dispensations were provided at the time, Mary was unaware of what that was or whether it was required.

So, am I right in thinking that as John wasn't baptised the marriage is void and Mary is able to marry in the Catholic Church?

Mary was a Catholic who got married outside the Catholic Church, without the ncessary Dispensations, so the marriage isn't recognised. Howecer, Mary should speak to a Catholic priest to go over the details in cas there's any other impediment.

Thank you so much @apostropheuse

Is Mary planning on lying about her previous marriage depending on the advice you receive here? I'm just trying to work out why she wouldn't ask the priest in the parish she attends. Or does she dislike the answer that priest has given?

As far as I know, there's no intention to lie. She's said her priest is off after an operation and they have someone different standing in each week and she doesn't wish to discuss it with them.

But is Mary actually Roman Catholic? Baptism is a Christian rather than Roman Catholic sacrament and when it is followed by Cof E confirmation is she C of E rather than RC?
If the RC church recognizes her as Cof E they would then recognize her C of E marriage.

Technically, according to Trent’s law, the failure of Catholics to marry within the Catholic Church” means that their ‘marriage’—even though it is recognised under civil law—does not count before the Church and, given the implications of Matthew 18:18, does not count before God, so I think Mary could marry John in a Catholic church!

As apostropheuse stated, Mary's marriage is presumptively invalid because she was a baptised Catholic who didn't hey permission to marry outside the Catholic Church, her husband's baptismal status and Petrine/Pauline privilege are not relevant in this case.

However, I also work on this on a daily basis, and unfortunately not all parish priests are well-informed about this. Their canon law classes may have been a while ago and/or they may not have been paying much attention ... I frequently come across priests who don't have a clue once it goes beyond very basic nullity cases.

I would advise Mary to either:
a) come prepared to her meeting with the pp, armed with the details of the relevant canons or
b) go straight to the diocesan tribunal and get the experts on it (beware that tribunal staff are not all canonical experts, some of them are admin staff with some basic training in canon law, but if she pushes it there will be some proper canonists there) then inform the pp that the investigation is ongoing.

It will need to be investigated, even though presumptively invalid, but not as thoroughly as a full nullity investigation.

If Mary goes to the parish priest, she might need to refer to this Motu Proprio from Benedict XVI. The relevant point (if she's not familiar with Church legalese) is that anyone who is baptised as a Catholic is bound by Catholic marriage law, regardless of what they have done since (e.g. Confirmation in CofE).