Please explain if a church annulment is necessary for this case: Mary and John, both baptized Catholic, married in civil court (lack of form). The court later declared their marriage void and was civilly annulled because John was already married in a Catholic church to another woman at the time of his marriage to Mary. Does Mary still need to have a church annulment before she can marry in the Catholic church?

-- Maria Romero (mromero70@hotmail.com), November 30, 2004

Answers

Any previous marriage must be submitted for determination of validity/nullity. Keep in mind that an "annulment" doesn't change anything. It is simply an official statement by the Church that a former putative marriage did not qualify as a valid marriage. In the case you describe, there is no doubt that investigation by the tribunal would result in such a statement being issued. But it still has to be done officially. We cannot make that determination for ourselves, even when the circumstances appear clearcut. You can imagine the chaos that would ensue if the Church opened this door just a crack, and said that in certain circumstances a couple could decide for themselves whether their former marriage was valid.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), November 30, 2004.

Thank you for your answer. Do you know if this would qualify as a ligamen type annulment? How is this different from the formal annulment? Will this process be quicker?

-- Maria Romero (mromero70@hotmail.com), December 01, 2004.

Yes, the grounds for annulment in this case would be "ligamen", or "prior bond". Such cases usually proceed quickly once documentation of the facts is received by the tribunal.

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 01, 2004.

Paul, I've addressed this issue with you in another thread as well. My question to you is this. If a person marries in their back yard by a justice of the peace, and later divorces, they will still have to go through the annulment process in order to get married in the church? I'de be interested to see literature that backs this up.

I'm not trying to be an argumentative PITA here, just interested where your information comes from since it appears to go against what I currently know about marriage and the church (and also goes against what common sense dictates).

Thanks for the info!!

-- Mike (none@none.com), December 17, 2004.

Yes, they will still have to obtain an official statement that their original marriage was invalid, an "annulment". Surely you can imagine the chaos that would ensue if the Church said "You must obtain an annulment of a previous marriage unless YOU are sure the previous marriage was not valid". All of a sudden everyone would be his own Canon lawyer, and additional invalid marriages would be multiplying out of control because everyone who was previously married would say "Why bother with a tribunal? The Church says we can decide for ourselves"!

You seem to be hung up on the idea that "annulment" actually changes the status of a marriage. It doesn't! Annulment simply means that the Church looks at a marriage which you already believe to be invalid, and officially says "Yes. You are correct". That's an "annulment"! Why does it go against common sense to have the Church, which understands canon law and has authority over the sacraments, verify the status of former marriages between individuals who don't know canon law and hold no such authority? If you were buying a piece of property, and you felt "sure" that there were no former liens or claims to the property, would you go ahead and buy it based on that assumption? Or would you insist on an official title search by a competent attorney before going through with the deal?

-- Paul M. (PaulCyp@cox.net), December 17, 2004.

As Paul has already mentioned, a Church annulment of the previous marriage in a civil court is still required before you may be married in the Catholic Church:

"A person obliged by the bond of a previous marriage, even if not consummated, invalidly attempts marriage." (Can 1085.1)

"Even though the previous marriage is invalid or for any reason dissolved, it is not thereby lawful to contract another marriage before the nullity or the dissolution of the previous one has been established lawfully and with certainty." (Can 1085.2)

The annulment process is what establishes the nullity of a marriage "lawfully and with certainty". It is a public judgment of the Church, not the private judgment of an individual. This is needed before being married in the Church because marriage is a public act recognized by the Church, not a private act of an individual.

A priest performing a pre-marriage interview of a couple will thus ask each person if they have _ever_ been married before, in any kind of ceremony, either civil or religious (i.e. "Have you ever said 'I do' to anyone?").

-- Fr. Terry Donahue, CC (terrydonahue@usa.net), December 17, 2004.

Thanks for clarifying. Actually though, I am not "hung up" on the fact that annulment changes something...I am completely aware of the fact that it is simply an official statement from the church stating that there never was a marriage. Thx again...

-- Mike (none@none.none), December 17, 2004.