Dear Chas:

Baptized Couple: If both the husband and wife have been validly baptised before their marriage, the marriage is automatically presumed sacramentally valid. Though for validity of a Catholic, the marriage must a Catholic wedding. In determining a sacramentally valid marriage, the conditions at the time of the marriage are considered, not what is happening in the marriage years later.

If the marriage fails and the couple divorce and then seek an annulment, the Marriage Tribunal has the authority to discern whether or not the marriage was sacramental. There are many disqualifying factors listed in Canon Law.

Concerning Separation: A couple may separate as this does not effect the validity of the marriage. In fact, bishops can give permission to divorce in order to protect the rights and well-being of the parties, especially the children (child support, assets, etc), as long as the couple understands that they are still married and cannot have any other relationships. The reason this procedure has developed is that many states no longer recognize a procedure for "Legal Separation." Divorce then becomes the only way to protect rights of the separated parties. This is allowed as a last resort, or as the solution to situations such as domestic violence.

Sacramental Marriage cannot be broken: No one, not even the Church, can end a sacramental marriage. If the marriage is sacramentally valid at the time of the wedding, then no matter how bad the marriage becomes in later years, the marriage is still valid. A bad marriage in later years, however, may be a clue that the marriage was not sacramentally valid. It is up to the Marriage Tribunal to determine that if an annulment petition is filed.

If the Marriage Tribunal declares the marriage sacramentally valid, then no matter how bad the marriage became, and even if the couple divorces, the couple is still married and may not marry again without committing the crime of Adultery and risking their souls to hell.

Only one of the spouses not Baptised: If the man's wife in your scenario was not baptized at the time of the wedding, then there are other other procedures that apply if the marriage fails. Annulment procedures are still required if the marriage to an unbaptized person were recognized by the Church.

To quote from a Church Annulment website:

Does the Church annul the marriages of Protestants and unbaptized individuals?

Yes. The Catholic Church recognizes Protestant, interfaith and civil marriages as valid in Catholic Church law. Once the Catholic Church recognizes a marriage as a valid in its law, then any question of invalidity must come before a church tribunal. These types of annulment requests normally occur when a divorced non-Catholic wishes to marry a Catholic.

So, for example, when two Lutherans marry in the Lutheran Church, the Catholic Church views that as a valid marriage in its own law. Suppose the Lutheran couple divorces, and the divorced man now wishes to marry a Catholic woman. He is not free to do so in the Catholic Church until the Catholic Church annuls his prior marriage. The same illustration also applies to unbaptized individuals. Some national estimates suggest that close to 20 % of the Catholic annulments granted in the United States are of non-Catholic marriages.

Note: a valid marriage under Church law is not necessarily the same thing as a Sacramentally Valid Marriage. Both parties must be baptized for the marriage to be sacramentally valid, and the marrage involving a Catholic must married in the Catholic Church. But, a non-sacramental marriage can be valid under Church law if the marriage is recognized by the Church, either due to the fact that the marriage was in the Church, or that the marriage was later regularized by the Church.

These issues can be very complicated. Anyone in this sort of situation needs to talk with their pastor, or with the Diocese if the pastor is not knowledgable about the technicalities.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary