I just started dating this man who is divorced. We are not serious yet, but I feel that I could fall in love with him. He has all the qualities I desire in a man. However, like I mentioned before, he is divorced. He was married in the Catholic Church and his marriage only lasted a year. It is really important to me that I marry in the Catholic Church. I am very unfamiliar the process of annulments. For what reasons can a marriage be annulled?

-- Maggie Maine (mmdz75@yahoo.com), September 18, 2002

Answers

Jmj

Hello, Maggie.
You asked: "For what reasons can a marriage be annulled?"

The truthful answer is that a marriage cannot ever "be annulled" (made null) for any "reasons." If a union of two people is a true marriage, in God's eyes, the only thing that can end it is the death of one of the two. Divorce does not end a union recognized by God.

What I think you want to ask, though, is this: "In order for a Catholic marriage tribunal to decide to issue a Decree of Nullity -- stating that no valid marriage came into existence on the wedding day -- what "grounds" (pre-existent, invalidating circumstances) must have existed on that wedding day?"

To answer that question, I recommend that you visit this page. After reading the information there, you can branch to other, related pages by clicking on the links.

You said that your friend has "all the qualities [you] desire in a man." I suggest that you also consider whether or not he has the qualities that God desires in a man. Please be very careful, lest you become his second "ex-wife."

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), September 18, 2002.