Dear Rain:

I forgive your parents for being hippies, so was I of sorts :)

Congratulations! In the ten years I have been answering questions online I have been stumped only a couple of times. YOU JUST STUMPED ME.

I have no idea how the scenario you describe would be handled by the Church. The answer to your question is a very technical one of Canon Law. I am not a Canon Lawyer, but I can usually find the answers or at least suggest some possible answers, but on this one--I really have no idea.

I can think of only two possible answers:

1) The first marriage would be declared Null, probably by special Papal dispensation, because the spouse was officially declared dead (albeit that we now know that is not the case) and surviving spouse, in good faith, remarried, with the permission of the Church, who in good faith, also believed the spouse to be dead. The annulment of the first marriage would be a technical procedure to affirm the second as valid; or

2) Since the previous spouse is not in fact dead, the marriage to the first spouse is still valid and in effect, making the second marriage invalid. The person would have to go back to the first spouse.

Of course there is the Church teaching about sacred things. When a blessed object is destroyed so that is no longer resembles what it was, such as a rosary that has fallen apart, then the blessing upon that object is no longer in effect. Maybe there is something similar that could be applied to the Sacrament of Marriage, I don't know. If this principle does apply, then the first marriage could be considered dissolved by reason of what everyone thought was the death of the spouse, leaving the surviving spouse free to remarry.

This is making my head spin.

Bottomline: I HAVE NO IDEA.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary