Aren't many people living null marriages, and therefore in a sinful state, without them realizing it?

[Joseph]

My understanding is that the Church does not nullify valid marriages, but declares them to be annulled if there was an impediment to the marriage at the time it was contracted. If this is true, doesn’t that mean that in the years prior to the annulment proceeding, the couple was living an illicit marriage and in a sinful state? By extension, aren’t many people possibly living in such a state today without realizing that their marriages may in fact be null? How can the Church’s presumption of all marriages being valid, until formally annulled, actually make them valid? Doesn’t the Church have a moral obligation to alert people to this point?
Thanks.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

People can be objectively in a sinful state. But if they are ignorant of the immorality of their behavior, they are not subjectively in sin. Once they are aware of such immorality, they are obliged under pain of sin to seek to rectify the situation.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.