Question:
Answer:
If you were married validly as two Christians in the Catholic Church, you and your husband’s marriage is a sacrament. As the Church’s Code of Canon Law provides, a marriage between two Christians in the Church cannot be valid without its also necessarily being a sacrament:
Can. 1055 §1. The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.
§2. For this reason, a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament (emphasis added).
Consequently, if you and your husband are Christians and your marriage is valid, it’s necessarily also a sacrament. And if that is the case, and you were also married in the Church, as you noted, there shouldn’t be an issue about a defect of form, i.e., regarding the sacramental rite by which you and your husband were married. And thus the validity of your marriage would be further reaffirmed.
However, if either you or your husband is not a Christian and you were married in the Church, as you note, then your marriage would be valid—so you need not be concerned about living in sin—but it would not be a sacrament. As conveyed above in can 1055, a sacramental marriage refers to a marriage between two Christians (see Eph. 5:21-33). Still, a marriage between a Christian and a non-Christian—or between two non-Christians—is still presumed to be valid unless otherwise demonstrated.
At this point, we suggest that you contact your local parish pastor and through him, if needed, your diocesan marriage tribunal. We’re confident that, if needed, your marriage can be validated by the Church, or that your concerns will be otherwise allayed because the validity of your marriage will be affirmed. God bless you and your husband in your walk with the Lord.