What are the necessary circumstances that qualify a marriage for annulment in the Catholic Church?
score:6
Members of the Catholic Church are required to marry in front of a priest (or deacon) (CCC 1630). If one of the parties is Catholic, but there is a serious reason why the marriage should be celebrated in front of a civil servant or a non-Catholic minister, a dispensation can be granted. If no dispensation was granted and the couple did not observe this law — the marriage is considered invalid. Because the nullity of the marriage is clear from the circumstances there is no need for a canonical process to issue a Declaration of Nullity. The correction of this invalidity requires the couple to exchange their consent according to canonical form (commonly called "having the marriage blessed").
Impediments
If one of the parties were prohibited from marrying by a diriment impediment, the marriage is invalid. Because these impediments may not be known at all, the marriage is called a putative marriage if at least one of the parties married in good faith.
Diriment impediments include:
Being too young. The absolute minimum age is 16 for males, 14 for females, but episcopal conferences can set a higher limit
Antecedent and perpetual impotence (not to be confused with sterility)
Being already married
If one party is a Catholic and the other has not been baptized (unless a dispensation is granted)
The man was ordained to holy orders
Either party made a public perpetual vow of chastity in a religious institute
Abduction with the intent of marriage (known as raptus), is an impediment as long as the person remains in the kidnapper's power
Impediment of Crime, bringing about the death of one's own spouse or the spouse of another, with the intention of marriage
Close relationship by blood, called Consanguinity, even if the relationship is only by law
Close relationship by marriage, called Affinity
Some of these laws can be relaxed by a dispensation before the ceremony.
For example, Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII of England received a dispensation from the impediment of affinity (Catherine had previously been married to Henry's brother Arthur, who died). Henry based his request for an annulment on the grounds that the dispensation had been improperly given in that his father, Henry VII, had pressured the Archbishop of Canterbury into granting the dispensation.
The correction of this invalidity after the marriage requires first that the impediment has ceased or has been dispensed, and then a "convalidation" can take place or a sanatio in radice can be granted to make the marriage valid.
Grounds for nullity
A marriage may be declared invalid because at least one of the two parties was not free to consent to the marriage or did not fully commit to the marriage.
Grounds for nullity include:
Simulation of consent; that is, the conscious and positive exclusion at consent by either or both of the contracting parties of one or all of the essential properties or "goods" of marriage: a) exclusivity of the marital relationship; b) the permanence of the marital bond; c) openness to offspring as the natural fruit of marriage (canon 1101§2)
Deliberate deceit about some personal quality that can objectively and gravely perturb conjugal life (canon 1098)
Conditional consent; the condition must concern the past or present (canon 1102)
Force or grave fear imposed on a person to obtain their consent (canon 1103)
A serious lack of the discretion of judgment at consent concerning the essential matrimonial rights and obligations to be given (canon 1095 n.2)
Psychic incapacity at consent to undertake the essential obligations of marriage (canon 1095 n.3). According to Canon 1095 a marriage can be declared null only when consent was given in the presence of some grave lack of discretionary judgment regarding the essential rights and obligations of marriage, or of some real incapacity to assume these essential obligations.
Upvote:0
Some of the circumstances that allow for annulment are:
"Psychological incapacity, absence of a proper intention to have children, be faithful, or remain together until death. Lack of judgement when married (young age, pressure, so on). One spouse carries an addictive problem with alcohol or drugs into the marriage. Perhaps a person, unfaithful during courtship, continues the infidelity after marrying. Marriage because of a pregnancy. If one of the marriage mates is violent." from Catholic Update & Friar Jacks
Some annulments can be denied if they are lacking enough reason to do so. For instance if the couple are fighting(not violently) a lot and want to be separated, that is not terms for an annulment. Marriage counseling would be recommended.
If the couple where to get divorced without the annulment, I presume, there would be spiritual consequences. Mark 10:11&12:
"He said to them: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if ever a woman after divorcing her husband marries another, she commits adultery.”
Without first dissolving the marriage, a new marriage would be considered adultery.
Upvote:3
It should perhaps be emphasized that an annulment does not dissolve a marriage. It is, rather, an official declaration that what appeared to be a marriage was not, i.e., that there was never a valid marriage in the first place. Unfortunately, in recent decades, the grounds for annulments have been expanded to the point where I find it hard to take them seriously --- for example, the "carries an addictive problem with alcohol or drugs into the marriage" quoted by Jeremy in his answer. In principle, grounds for annulments are supposed to be reasons why the purported marriage could not be valid --- for example, if one party was already married to someone else, or if one or both parties were being forced to get married, or if they had conspired to murder the previous spouse of one of the parties. In other words, grounds for annulments are essentially the same as impediments to marriage.
More post
- 📝 Do any second century Christian or Jewish writings discuss the Great Revolt of 70 AD?
- 📝 What is the Calvinist view of God's sovereignty?
- 📝 Did God really create the world in six days?
- 📝 Does transubstantiation teach that the Son regularly returns physically?
- 📝 Prior to the burning bush event - what was Moses's knowledge of God?
- 📝 What does the Bible tell us about how people knew right from wrong before the Law of Moses?
- 📝 Did the early church believe that Jesus was uncreated?
- 📝 List of papal teachings considered infallible
- 📝 How was 'years' defined in the book of Genesis?
- 📝 Why did Pope Francis raise the minimum age for being granted 'Monsignor' from 35 to 65 years?
- 📝 How do Protestant Christians explain gender dysphoria/transgenderism?
- 📝 How would Christianity be different if Paul was found to be a Jewish spy?
- 📝 Is it necessary to be a Christian to be saved?
- 📝 What's the point of the tenth commandment?
- 📝 Could Christ who carried our sins on the cross forgive those same sins?
- 📝 How do Protestants reconcile their confession of the Athanasian Creed with sola scriptura?
- 📝 Has Peter Lombard ever been venerated in the Catholic Church?
- 📝 Do Catholics believe in the Old Testament?
- 📝 Have any popes explicitly expressed disapproval of the inclusion of h*m*sexual priests, including the nonpracticing, into the priesthood?
- 📝 Has anyone heard of or seen anything that Angels can be redeemed?
- 📝 What is the Biblical Basis for monothelitism?
- 📝 Why did Jesus tell His disciples to buy a sword?
- 📝 If the Geneva Bible was the Bible of the English reformation, then why did the KJV become so widely used?
- 📝 Are we the result of God's permissive will?
- 📝 Why is being gay considered more sinful than being divorced or commiting adultery?
- 📝 Why did Luther add the word 'alone' to Romans 3:28?
- 📝 How do proponents of the “free-will defense” against the problem of evil explain that God can be free and immune to moral evil at the same time?
- 📝 How do Christians tell whether they lack or have the "power" promised in Acts 1:8?
- 📝 Was there a special significance in God's choice of ravens for supply of provisions to prophet Elijah?
- 📝 What's up with churches and guitars in this joke from The Big Bang Theory?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What are the necessary circumstances that qualify a marriage for annulment in the Catholic Church?
- 📝 What are the stipulations for a mixed marriage to be valid in the Catholic Church?
- 📝 What is the protestant apologetic for James' explicit statement that we are justified by works?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the belief held by Jehovah's Witnesses that Jehovah and Jesus Christ are separate entities?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the Athanasian Creed's statement that believing in the Trinity is necessary for salvation?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the belief that there are humans in heaven now?
- 📝 What is the basis for the position that only Paul's writings are applicable to the church today?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the belief that good works are the fruits of faith?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for concluding that 'all moral works' done without grace are sinful?
- 📝 What is the basis for saying that the Antichrist, man of lawlessness, and the beast of Revelation 13 are all the same?
- 📝 Do Lutherans believe that the sacraments are necessary for salvation (similar to Catholics), and if so, how do they reconcile this with Sola Fide?
- 📝 What are the arguments of those who believe that the prerequisite stated here by John is yet not sufficient for being born of God?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the claim that abortion is morally acceptable (when there are no complicating factors)?
- 📝 What arguments from scripture are given by Baptists for the belief that one third of the angels were banished from heaven with Satan?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for claims that certain manifestations are not of the Holy Spirit but counterfeits (e.g. Kundalini awakening)?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the notion that the wicked are resurrected in immortal bodies just like the righteous?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the belief that Mary and/or other saints are in heaven?
- 📝 What is the basis for the idea that marriage requires a ceremony?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for believing that the Feast Days / Appointed Festivals / Holy Convocations are still morally binding for Christians today?
- 📝 What are the sins that God kills for in the Bible?
- 📝 What explanations are there for God's lack of culpability for the sin that was a part of the plan of salvation?
- 📝 What are some good resources that explain the rational reasons behind the faith for a questioning Atheist?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the idea that spiritual gifts are no longer relevant?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for believing that the Feast Days / Appointed Festivals / Holy Convocations are NOT morally binding for Christians today?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for the claim that abortion is immoral?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for the concept that Jesus spent time in Hell?
- 📝 What are the biblical arguments that the Bible canon is closed?
- 📝 For Catholics who object to Vatican II, what are the key issues?
- 📝 What is the basis that some Protestants teach the non-necessity of baptism for salvation?
- 📝 What is the Biblical evidence that there are ONLY three persons in the "Trinity"?