The Catholic Church does not recognise divorce, which is a civil instrument for ending a marriage. Consequently, there can normally be no re-marriage where there is a partner surviving. Nevertheless, it does allow for annulment, which says that the marriage was not a true marriage from its beginning and is stricken from the record as though it had never been. In such cases, the Church will be prepared to marry that person - provided, of course, that they have the legal right in civil law by being divorced by the State from their original partner.
Reasons for annulment must be good - the most common are insufficiency or inadequacy of judgment (also known as lack of due discretion, due to some factor such as young age, pressure to marry in haste, etc), psychological incapacity, and absence of a proper intention to have children, be faithful, or remain together until death.
There are also some circumstances in which the Roman Catholic Church will not recognise the previous marriage, for instance, if a Catholic was previously married outside the authority of the Catholic Church. It does not recognise civil marriage, since the ceremony conducted in a register office has no religious significance at all.
Members of the Catholic faith might, therefore, be able to marry again in church, after an annulment or even after a divorce if the first marriage was a civil ceremony with no benefit from clergy.
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