I was baptized a Byzantine Catholic at birth and was married in a Roman Catholic Church with a Byzantine bishops approval. I got married when I was 5 months pregnant at 21 years old because I felt like I had to because of family pressure and ridicule and because I was lied to by my fiance. I never would have married this man if there was not a pregnancy involved. A few months into the marriage I found out that he had been with several other women the entire term of our dating relationship and had lied about his past on several occasions because he new I would not marry him if the truth were known. I have now been married to him for 5 years and I cannot stand to try to pretend like I did this under my own free-will. The only reason I have stayed so long is because I felt morally obligated. My question is is there any grounds for an annulment in this situation? Thank you for any help.

-- Bernadette Maxwell (bernadettemaxwell@yahoo.com), December 06, 2002

Answers

Dear Bernadette, Both the fact that you were pressured into the marriage by circumstances, and the fact that essential information that would have altered your decision to marry was deliberately withheld from you would be clear grounds for annulment. In Christ, Paul

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 06, 2002.

Bernadette

I would advise that you refer this matter to your diocesan bishop on the grounds that he had misguided you prior to your marriage within the Church i.e. his pre-marital history.

Michael

-- Michael (michael_safc@hotmail.com), December 06, 2002.

Dear Bernadette, You definately have grounds for an anullment. What I learned in the seminary was that for the marriage to be declared null, the marriage must simply have taken place without true love. It seems there was none, because of your lying fiance and your pressuring family.

My sister is just getting out of a similar marriage, but she was only married in the courts. Her husband went to strip joints and beat her a few times. Thanks to God she and her children are out of that. There isn't much of a difference between her experience and yours.

In Christ,

-- Andrew Boyd (andrewboyd100@hotmail.com), December 17, 2002.

Andrew, I think that you were either taught wrongly in the seminary or you misunderstood what you were told.

A Declaration of Nullity is granted according to grounds listed in the Code of Canon Law. Among those grounds you will not find, "marriage entered into without true love." Millions of "arranged" marriages have been entered into in the history of Christianity, even though love was not present. No one can suddenly declare that all those marriages were invalid.

God bless you.
John

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