Does The Rc Church Recognise Marriages In Other Churches?

[kg94]

My friend is married in the Baptist Church but has split up with her husband. As far as I know, they are both baptised Christians. She converted to Catholicism, and is wondering whether she can have a new relationship with a Catholic man, for example, and then later on get married in the Catholic Church. The question is, does the Catholic Church recognise her marriage in the Baptist Church as valid and sacramental, binding her to her husband for life, or is she still seen as free in the eyes of the Catholic Church because she was not married in the Catholic Church? Would it be treated as other situations where people decided not to marry in the Church and so their marriages are deemed invalid?

[CatherineM]

Only Catholics are required to be married in front of a priest. So in that way it is easier for a Catholic to receive an annulment because we have additional requirements in order for the Church to recognize the marriage as valid. Non-Catholics do not have this requirement. If they are married in a Baptist Church, get divorced, and later wish to marry a Catholic or become a Catholic and wish to remarry, they will need to receive an annulment of their first marriage.