A question about annulment

[zhangxupage]

The Church does not believe in divorce but they can pass annulments. If the husband or wife is disabled after they get married, can he or she get an annulment?

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Um, I think you don’t know what a decree of nullity is (commonly called “annnulment”.)

What a decree of nullity does is (through the Tribunal) determine whether a valid marriage takes place. That means “at the time of the marriage” not afterward.

Here is some info from EWTN:

ewtn.com/expert/answers/annulment.htm

 

[cameron_lansing]

The Church does not believe in divorce but they can pass annulments. If the husband or wife is disabled after they get married, can he or she get an annulment?

Not per se. A disability after the time of consent would not invalidate the consent by itself. And I’m not certain what you mean by disability.

As noted, nullity considers the situation at the time of marital consent. It pertains to the validity of consent that both parties gave or their freedom from impediments at the time of the marriage. We don’t annul marriages. We examine to see if they were valid, and the law presumes in most cases that they were.

Other factors that arise later can shed light on consent at the time of the wedding, but none of them are a basis of invalidity by themselves. Certain, if the disability arose from physical injury, that is no basis for nullity.

However, a nullity investigation could be introduced for other reasons, if they are canonical grounds of invalidity and have a basis in fact.

If the disability was psychological and existed in a latent form as a personality disorder, it might have prevented the person from giving valid consent because he or she could not assume the essential obligations of marriage. But it was not manifested at the time of consent. This would involve a nullity investigation related to canon 1095, no. 3, most likely. An example might be true alcoholic personality disorder or schizophrenia or bi polar disorder. These are, contrary to what people post, difficult cases.

If the disability renders the person incapable of participating in the process, a curator or guardian would be appointed to protect his or her rights in the process.

Other scenarios that come to mind are a little a field.

1. The disability is a physical one (such as an incapacitating and permanently dehabilitating stroke) that occurs after the wedding ceremony and before the couple consummates the marriage. Theoretically a dispensation super rato, that is, the dissolution of a non consummated marriage could be given by the Supreme Pontiff. Whether it would or should be given is a separate issue, and I won’t conjecture because the decision belongs to the pope alone. This dissolution, however, is not a decree of nullity. It recognizes that a valid marriage did take place, so it’s a separate category.
2. A Pauline privilege or a privilege in favor of the faith (a so called “Petrine” privilege) might be presented in the case where respectively both or one was unbaptized at the time of marital consent and the conditions for the privilege exist. Neither of these suppose the marriage was invalid, and to the contrary, suppose it was.

However, this would not absolve the parties from the moral and even civil obligations which they may have to each other and to their children.

 

[puzzleannie]

The Church does not believe in divorce but they can pass annulments. If the husband or wife is disabled after they get married, can he or she get an annulment?

I don’t know what you mean by “pass.” The Church can after a duly thorough examination of the facts that pertained at the time of the marriage (what happened subsequently is irrelevant) issue a judgement that a valid marriage never existed, and this is called a decree of nullity.

 

[tee_eff_em]

An event (disability) occurring after the marriage cannot *per se *render the marriage null – Only condition(s) extant at the time of the marriage can do so.

I suspect, however, that a spouse rendered disabled can bring to light such a condition. eg *“I know I said *For better or for worse, *but I didn’t really mean *forever *to someone with a disability” could be *indicative of an imperfect understanding of the permanence of marriage and of intent. If a decree of nullity would be issued, I suspect it would have conditions attached to it prior to attempting another marriage, however.

:twocents:
tee
who is NOT a canon lawyer