Do I have grounds for an annulment?

[mikefromflorida]

Let me start off by saying that I am recently divorced and at this time have no intention of ever getting married again. My ex and I were married for 12-1/2 years. We started dated when she was 14 and I was 17 and did not marry until I was 25 years old. When we got married I was Catholic but did not really follow the teachings the way I should have and do now. In fact I was very skeptical of the Church at the time and married in the Church to please my family. In fact, the week before our wedding the priest advised us to go to confession. My wife did and I told her I didn’t need to confess my sins to a priest and had no part of confessing my sins.

Later in life I became closer to Jesus and, just as I changed my views about the Church, my ex-wife leaves me for another man. I begged her to stay with me and my two kids but she insisted that she was in love with him. For many months she would come home and hang out with me and the kids and as soon as the kids went to bed she got in her car and left to go sleep at her boyfriend’s house. She wanted us to have an open marriage, where she could come and go as she pleased. I couldn’t do this. My question is, do I have grounds for an annulment?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

Based solely on what you’ve said here? It doesn’t sound like it to me. While you started dating young, both of you were of age when you married. Although confession before marriage is a good thing, it is not strictly required for a valid marriage. Your own beliefs about the Church would not necessarily have rendered you unfit for marriage. And your wife’s later immoral behavior does not necessarily mean she could not contract a valid marriage on her wedding day. If the marriage between two Catholics is valid, then it is also sacramental and indissoluble. Keep in mind, though, that I am not a canon lawyer. If you want to know for sure, you’ll have to start annulment proceedings and see what a marriage tribunal has to say. But if you do not intend to remarry, why would you want to spend the time and resources necessary to do that?