Is it possible to get married in a Catholic Church after being married at a registry office?

Answer 1

It is not clear from this question whether the person who was married in a registry office has since been divorced and now wishes to marry a new partner in a church, or whether the couple wish to celebrate their existing civil marriage in church. If a married couple wish to celebrate their existing civil marriage in church, that should be no problem, although the couple would need to go to confession because their prior relationship may be considered 'sinful'. Most priests would handle this tactfully. If one party has been married before, in a registry office, and divorced, then an annulment of that marriage may be possible. While the Catholic Church does not recognise civil divorce, it does offer annulments where it believes the circumstances are justified. Since the Catholic Church regards marriage as a binding commitment, an annulment has the effect of saying that, in the view of the Church, the marriage never really happened.

Answer 2

It is my understanding that no one who is validly married can divorce and marry someone else. Jesus refers to this when he says a person marrying someone who is divorced commits adultery (Matthew 5:31-32, Matthew 19:4-9, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:18). The Church has a policy whereby a marriage can be annulled if shown that the marriage didn't exist in the first place. Certain conditions such as maturity, willingness to have children, comprehending the permanance of such a commitment, no pressure to get married such as a pregnancy already existing, and others must be present for a marriage to be valid. If it can be shown that one or more of these conditions was not present at the time of marriage, the Church can declare a marriage null and void or annulled because everything necessary for it to be a marriage was not present at the time. In that case, there was no real marriage and a person would be free to marry.