In Catholic Canon Law, you are free to marry if there are no legal obstacles. What are the possible obstacles? The common ones are below.

Age – the Catholic Church respects civil law, so in Wales you must be at least 18 years old to be legally marry.

Sex at birth – the Catholic Church can only marry a biological man to a biological woman.

Existing relationship – you cannot marry your own parent or child, sibling, aunt or uncle, niece or nephew. Marrying a first cousin requires special permission.

Prior bond – you are not free to marry if you are already married to a person who is still living. The Catholic Church does not recognise civil divorce.

There are some circumstances where the Catholic Church can set aside a prior bond. These include:

• A baptised Catholic who got civilly married without the Church’s blessing;
• A previous marriage to someone who was themself already married;
• A previous marriage to an unbaptised person where you now want to be married to a baptised person (permitted by St Paul, known as the Pauline Privilege);
• A full investigation which shows something was lacking (e.g. sanity, honesty, intent to keep marriage vows) at the time the prior marriage was celebrated.

None of these situations is straightforward; you should always expect to have a conversation with the Parish Priest about whether a Catholic marriage is possible as the first step.