Certain kind of marriage invalid?

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Maxirad

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Is a marriage that occurs solely so one of the spouses can obtain custody of his or her child invalid in the eyes of the Catholic Church? I have a feeling the answer is “Yes,” but I want to be sure. In this case, there would be no real love between the spouses.
 
In this situation, if you are single then you probably shouldn’t marry this person at this time. Maybe things will change later between the two parties? If you married and divorced this person then that is a different situation in which reconciliation would probably be advisable.

Only God can really judge the validity of a marriage. I would keep in mind that when two people are married their life is seen as one. Do you want to go to Jesus on judgement day with this other person?
 
The Church generally presumes a marriage to be valid unless proven otherwise. The intent you are describing is not something immediately observable, so the church would not issue any definitive statement on the validity of that marriage without due process.

That said, if one spouse entered into the marriage with that mindset, that sounds like an impediment to a valid marriage to me.
 
Maxirad said:
Is a marriage that occurs solely so one of the spouses can obtain custody of his or her child invalid in the eyes of the Catholic Church? I have a feeling the answer is “Yes,” but I want to be sure. In this case, there would be no real love between the spouses.
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I’ve been wondering because this kind of situation arose on the 1980s TV soap opera Santa Barbara. Check out this Wikipedia article to find out what happened.
 
Maxirad said:
Is a marriage that occurs solely so one of the spouses can obtain custody of his or her child invalid in the eyes of the Catholic Church? I have a feeling the answer is “Yes,” but I want to be sure. In this case, there would be no real love between the spouses.
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While marrying for love is the norm these days, it is not a requirement of the Church. The requirements for a valid marriage are a commitment to fidelity, permanence and the welcoming of children. A marriage of convenience **could **be valid if those conditions are met.
 
I’m not sure how the question is relevant? Since when did one parent being married affect the custody decisions awarded by the courts?
 
Warandpeace said:
Only God can really judge the validity of a marriage. I would keep in mind that when two people are married their life is seen as one. Do you want to go to Jesus on judgement day with this other person?
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Actually, the Church is endowed with the power to bind and lose, and is therefore juridicially enabled to judge the validity of a marriage on behalf of God. The facts mentioned above about putatively valid marriages are true. A marriage is valid until determined otherwise by a competent tribunal. There is no “surprise invalidity” where a couple is married in the Church in good faith and then goes to meet Jesus and discovers they have been sinning all this time. That does not happen! We are assured this by Christ himself!
 
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