Divorced v Widowed?

[woofas]

We have a divorced friend who was refused permission to re-marry in church. If her ex-husband had died before application, would she have still been considered to be divorced or would the church have considered her to have been widowed? Similarly what would be her official status after her ex had died - divorced or widowed?

[brenda]

You can only be a widow if you have a husband to whom you are married who who then dies.
If you have divorced your husband, both you and he are divorcees.
If he then dies ater you are divorced , you cannot be a widow because you do not have a husband because of the divorce and so you are still a divorcee not a widow.

Is that was the question was ?????

[fredpuli47]

Yes, the Catholic Church can be very generous and understanding ! My Catholic sister-in-law was a definite suicide,who killed herself by running a hose from the car exhaust. As a suicide she could not be buried in consecrated ground, therefore.Or could she? Well, she was.Her father 'had a word' with the Church. The Church ultimately decided that if she was buried before the Coroner returned a verdict of suicide, she was not a suicide.So she was buried in consecrated ground,in the adjournment between Coroner's hearings of the inquest. Her father said that 'the word' he had with the Church was a 'very expensive word', but it got the result with the Church's high-ups (at the lowest level the reply had been 'no'). Obviously the local priest was,er, not fully conversant with doctrine !

[Marijn]

Yeah, that's how they get round it. They call the first marriage null and void ,aka an anulment. But would anyone with any integrity want to do that, just so that they could get married for a second time in a Catholic church?!

[dothawkes31]

In law the woman would still be a divorcee, if you look at what the registrar would legally have to write ubnder 'marital status' on any application made to the register office for marriage. Anyone married in a Catholic Church has to have a registrar present to make it legal. The registrar wouls legally have to enter the condition as 'previous marriage dissolved' which does not include the words 'divorce or annulment' therefore the Catholic Priest being approached to marry someone divorced should only need to see that marriage application and not be allowed to ask further questions, as it's none of his bloody business.