conversion from catholicism QUESTION from Josh Roshbough on January 15, 2003 I have read that if an individual was raised Catholic and baptised into the Catholic church, it was possible for them to be considered 'non-Catholic' by participating in a baptisim or other formal public declaration into another faith (such as evangelical). I ask because this would affect whether or not this individual was participating in a valid marriage. If the individual, due to this baptism into the evangelical church was then outside of the cathlic law, their marriage to an indivdual baptised within the evangelical church would be considered valid. Is any of this true? If so, exactly where in the Canon can this be found?
Thank you in advance. Josh Roshbough
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius, OLSM on January 23, 2003 Dear Mr. Roshbough:
All marriages between validly baptized persons are valid even if not in the Catholic Church.
Thus, yes, the person who has defected from the Catholic Faith, joins another ecclesial fellowship and marries a validly baptized person in that ecclesial fellowship is validly married.
The Canon that governs this is Canon 1055.
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