What canonical procedures does the Catholic Church use for remarriage after divorce, and how have they applied in high-profile cases like the 1977 Biden wedding?
Executive summary
The Catholic Church treats marriage as a lifelong, sacramental bond and requires a formal tribunal process — a decree of nullity (commonly called an annulment) — before a divorced person may validly remarry in the Church; civil divorce alone does not free someone for a Church wedding or for full sacramental participation [1] [2] [3]. Questions about the 1977 wedding of Joe and Jill Biden center on whether required permissions and any subsequent annulment were obtained; reporting cited here raises concerns but does not provide documentary proof that an annulment was or was not granted [4] [5].
1. How the Church defines validity: indissolubility and the need for a tribunal
Under Catholic teaching marriage is a covenantal, indissoluble bond; therefore a civil divorce does not dissolve a marriage in Church law and a person who remarries civilly remains barred from a sacramental remarriage unless a tribunal issues a decree of nullity finding the first union lacked essential elements of validity [1] [2]. Catholic pastoral materials and tribunal guides emphasize that the annulment process examines consent, impediments, and factors present at the time of the first marriage rather than simply re-litigating a civil divorce [6] [1].
2. Practical steps and permissions required before a Catholic can remarry
For a Catholic wanting to remarry, the usual canonical path is: ensure freedom to marry by addressing any prior bond through the diocesan tribunal; obtain necessary permissions for mixed marriages or marriages outside a parish if applicable; and refrain from setting a Church wedding date until tribunal determinations are complete, since parish clergy are not empowered to override tribunal processes [3] [7] [6]. Popular guides underscore that civil law and Church law operate on different standards — civil divorce creates legal freedom but not ecclesial freedom for remarriage [3] [7].
3. The Biden 1977 wedding: what reporting actually shows and what it does not
Commentators at Catholic World Report and The Catholic Thing highlight facts that raise canonical questions about the Bidens’ June 17, 1977 ceremony at the United Nations Chapel — namely that Jill Biden was previously married and divorced, that the ceremony was officiated by a Protestant minister, and that mixed-marriage permissions or a prenuptial investigation would ordinarily have been required — thereby suggesting the wedding "almost certainly" would not have been valid under strict canonical norms unless permissions or an annulment existed [4] [5] [8]. Those sources, however, do not produce diocesan records or a published tribunal decree; they pose questions and interpret the circumstances through canonical norms rather than documenting a final ecclesiastical judgment [4] [5].
4. Competing interpretations and possible pastoral workarounds
Conservative canonists and commentators emphasize form and canonical procedure, implying that without paperwork a Catholic’s remarriage remains irregular [4] [5]. Other pastoral perspectives — echoed in Catholic pastoral Q&A resources and commentary about Pope Francis’ emphasis on accompaniment — note that pastoral solutions and clarifying procedures (including later nullity cases or faculty-based permissions) can regularize a situation and that Pope Francis’ rhetoric has introduced pastoral flexibility that some read as confusing but which the Vatican frames as mercy within law [2] [1] [4]. Reporting cited here mentions this wider debate but does not establish whether any such pastoral regularization took place in the Bidens’ case [4] [5].
5. What can and cannot be concluded from the available reporting
From the sources provided, the canonical standard is clear: civil divorce does not equal freedom to remarry in the Church, annulment or proper permissions are normally required, and marriages outside canonical form raise questions about validity [3] [1] [7]. What cannot be concluded from these reports is whether Joe and Jill Biden later obtained an annulment for Jill’s prior marriage, received retroactive permissions, or otherwise regularized their status with a diocesan tribunal — the commentators raise plausible canonical flags but do not cite tribunal records proving invalidity or subsequent resolutions [4] [5].