Grounds for Marriage Annulment in the Catholic Church

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If I cannot discuss these matters with Catholics, I am fine with not being here at all.

I have noticed others sharing my concerns. It’s always a few who get offended. And I think that’s a shame, cuz no offense is meant.
 
Here’s the thing—either you trust the Church or you don’t. Virtually every aspect of Church teaching is based on human understanding of Christ’s teaching. So if you accept the Magisterium, why can you not accept the Church’s judgement when it comes to the application of canon law?
 
conduct rule 3: Do not view the discussion area as a vehicle for single-mindedly promoting an agenda.

now look through your post history.
 
Rather than givening a blank statement concerning the Rota, you might wish to say what year the Rota decided those cases, how many cases were decided, and from where they came. The Rota takes cases from the world, not just the US…

Some other statistics: CARA (CEnter For Applied REsearch In The Apostolate) did research on tribunal cases.

Their finding was that 7% of divorced Catholics had received a decree of nullity.

And contrary to the claims of some who presume lack of good faith of the tribunals, they found that 8% of Catholics who started an investigation of their prior marriage did not receive a declaration of nullity. This includes those who spoke with one or more priests or advocates, those who started the preparation of the documentation, those who submitted documentation but did not follow through with other required information (e.g. witnesses), those who received a recommendation from the tribunal to withdraw (meaning the likelihood was that on that case/evidence basis, there was insufficient information) and those who proceeded to hearing, either having a split decision between the first tribunal and the reviewing one or a decision of insufficient evidence.

that leaves 85% of divorced Catholics who have not attempted to resolve the issue of the validity of their first marriage.

Coupled with that the is the findings of CARA that somewhere between 20% and 25% of Catholics attend Mass on a regular basis.

Those two issues indicate we have a lot of Catholics who have either effectively or positively abandoned the Church or have minimal contact with it.
 
Jesus was very [precise about a large number of things he said.

The expansion of grounds has come from centuries of contemplating Christ’s statements, as well as greater understanding of what we are called to do as well as what we fail to do. The expansion of impediments and of defective consent has come as the results of that 2000 years of reflection, and I for one would be extremely hesitant to say or even imply that the Holy Spirit has not been guiding the Church in these matters.
 
That is pure, unadulterated poppycock. One has nothing to do with the other, and you are making a totally unfounded assumption that being remarried has any influence whatsoever on the decision of the tribunal.

Unless you have facts, that is unwarranted.
 
rcwitness is in a state about that issue because of his own personal situation.
 
Colonel,

That was my extremely frustrating thought, that if I did remarry without the annulment that ONE SIN can excommunicate me from the Sacraments FOREVER or until I divorced.

However, How I got through this was consider leaving the Catholic Church to be a LCMS confessional Lutheran. Why because I had issues with the Defender of the Bond fighting for the marriage bond who was a man and never married. Not only that but I never EVEN MET the Defender of the Bond.

I found NO compassion just judgement and it felt like a bunch of pharisees and ypocrites judging me worthy or unworthy to Commune again if I remarry.

I do not believe that is he “unforgivable sin.” In the Catholic Church however it is.
 
This is a valid point My friend did just that. Married civilly while her annulment was pending. Then the tribunal said the first marriage was invalid. She got her annulment. The she annulled the civil marriage easily because she was a Catholic when she did so.

The whole process is truly unfathomable in ways.
 
I was reading through Corinthians and was struck with the writings of St Paul when he says:

1 Corinthians 4:3 - Bible Gateway​

www.biblegateway.com

1 Corinthians 4:3 - Bible Gateway

www.biblegateway.com www.biblegateway.com

I couldn’t care less if I’m judged by you or by any human court; I don’t even … And it is a prime requisite in a trustee that he should prove worthy of his trust . … that I be judged by you or any human tribunal ; I do not even pass judgment on myself;.
 
JulianN said:
So if you accept the Magisterium, why can you not accept the Church’s judgement when it comes to the application of canon law?
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Easy. Because the decisions of a tribunal can be overturned and sometimes are. So it is entirely possible that they are in error in particular cases. Furthermore, we have the testimony of a canon lawyer who says that he can get a tribunal to annul any marriage.
 
FloridaCatholic said:
conduct rule 3: Do not view the discussion area as a vehicle for single-mindedly promoting an agenda.

now look through your post history.
Click to expand...
It can be argued that everyone here is promoting an agenda of some sort. It is very unfair for the pro-annulment people to single out and flag those who have disagreements with the annulment process.
 
Indeed. In the end, each person must decide, as a matter of conscience, how to respond to a negative ruling. Some continue to respect the court’s competency and live according to the pronouncement that their first marriage is still valid and binding. Others reject not only the court’s decision, but turn their backs on all the Church contains, it’s tradition, it’s teaching, it’s authority and quite sadly, the Holy Eucharist.
 
I’m just saying all OP’s posts are about the same agenda
 
  1. If they decided to appeal to the Rota why have they made marriage plans and gone through with them?
  2. You do know that the Rota doesn’t actually hear that many cases, right? I believe they actually don’t hear most of the cases that are sent to them.
 
From what I understand it’s very rare that the decision would be overturned. Until very recently TWO courts were required to state that a marriage was invalid before a declaration of nullity was granted. I believe that in most cases where the Rota “overturned” a decision there had already been a disagreement between the initial tribunal and the appeals tribunal about the verdict. So it would be uncommon.

I used to feel that declarations of nullity were given too freely. Then when I got older I learned about the circumstances of many of these cases. Currently I suspect that most cases of nullity trials fall into one of three categories:
  1. Divorced non-Catholic wishing to marry a Catholic.
  2. Divorced and remarried non-Catholic wishing to become Catholic.
  3. Divorced Catholic wishing to remarry a Catholic.
As you can see, in two of these cases the marriage was never celebrated in the Catholic Church. In some cases there may have been minimal or no marriage preparation. In many cases, too, the parties may not have had a Catholic understanding of marriage. Given these factors I don’t think the number of declarations of nullity is unreasonable.
 
It is a difficult topic the marriage annulment issue if you are ever involved with it. I don’t feel anyone here has an agenda. We have strong and differing opinions. The dialogue here has been helpful to me to understand all points of this issue.

This is not a simple issue by any means. You can be married and this could affect you both ways; you feel your marriage was invalid and the court finds it valid, and of course vice versa. I think it is harder for people like Kennedy who felt they had a valid marriage and the tribunal finds it invalid. If you choose to remarry with a Catholic tribunal court determined document saying your marriage was valid, you are virtually NOT ALLOWED TO COMMUNE anymore. I love the Church so much and eventually my marriage was found invalid.

I would be CRYING in my car at the thought of it and for the many months it took. It drained me emotionally the year plus it took. You do feel like your remarriage sin if you choose to go that route is the only unforgivable sin.

It’s the best it has to offer but our own Pope is looking for more compassion to the divorced and remarried. I pray the procedure itself can be more streamlined and more pastoral.

We can pray for all marriages and all involved both laity and clergy in the process.

Thank you for the dialogue here. Let us grow towards a better understanding of the issue

In Christ,

PS Colonel I just realized I somehow got your name on the wrong post. I was speaking to the poster who feels someone in this dialogue has an agenda. I don’t know how to fix that, sorry. Mea culpa. You are the voice of reason on this thread.
 
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  1. In my opinion the reason is that people are human and are called to the vocation of marriage very deeply. It’s a flaw in the system. If you are the Catholic party and marry while this process is going on then you can get your nullity of your marriage from the Tribunal that won’t look at anything that happened AFTER the marriage unless it speaks to the validity of consent and…
Then people turn around and it’s a “simple” annulment to annul the Civil Marriage because you were still married in the eyes of the Church to the spouse of the marriage in question and did not validly marry in the Catholic Church.
  1. Back in the dinosaur age LOL when I proceeded through with this process the “word on the street” was appeal to the Roman Rota because they very RARELY find a marriage invalid and it took years from my understanding at that time. Thus you could officially block a former spouse from remarriage if the First/Second instance courts found your former marriage invalid an d you appealed to the Rota.
Truly a flawed process. From what one priest said the Rota finally discerned people were often appealing to the Rota and they don’t hear that many cases any more.

My friend was one of the unfortunate people where the First and Second instance court disagreed with each other and he is now an Episcopalian.
 
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That’s “spot on” Colonel. In my heart I felt like Peter in John 6, where would we go for you, (Jesus) have the Words of everlasting life.

To even THINK about losing my ability to receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the source and summit of our Faith broke my heart. The decision came out that our marriage in question WAS invalid which what I felt in my heart after speaking to to a Canon Law Attorney who helped me find the correct grounds.

I was dissuaded by the priest in our parish from even filing. He did not feel we had grounds. I called sobbing to the Tribunal in my diocese and they said “would you like to discuss this with a Canon Law attorney?” I said sure and the rest is as they say history.

Invalid, still sad in your heart for I was married to the man I loved for 10 years .

God bless you Colonel

I always appreciate your posts for their clarity and no nonsense approach 🙂
 
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