Grounds for Marriage Annulment in the Catholic Church

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my path is into the religious life of the community 🙂

I wish you all the best for your exploration into a potential marriage
 
(I will post this in both threads)
Here lies a problem…

In order to receive the most official (yet not infallible) assessment of whether a Marriage is bound in the Lord from the Church, YOU MUST CIVILLY DIVORCE FIRST!!

So receiving affirmation whether or not the Sacrament is valid or not is granted only after commitments to give up are required.

So the current process doesn’t seek to rely on the potential grace of the Sacrament, but compromises that grace in order to accommodate hard heartedness.

It should first seek to affirm whether the couple are married in the Lord, in order to compel the couple to rely on Christ’s grace to either reconcile or remain single.

Do not cater to the couple who did not Marry as they ought to have done, but to the couple who did marry as they ought to have so they can turn to Jesus in order to heal the Marriage or have strength to honor Jesus as a “eunuch for the kingdom”.

The Church should be concerned for the Sacrament and the genuine Christian first and foremost.
 
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rcwitness said:
(I will post this in both threads)
Here lies a problem…

In order to receive the most official (yet not infallible) assessment of whether a Marriage is bound in the Lord from the Church, YOU MUST CIVILLY DIVORCE FIRST!!

So receiving affirmation whether or not the Sacrament is valid or not is granted only after commitments to give up are required.

So the current process doesn’t seek to rely on the potential grace of the Sacrament, but compromises that grace in order to accommodate hard heartedness.

It should first seek to affirm whether the couple are married in the Lord, in order to compel the couple to rely on Christ’s grace to either reconcile or remain single.

Do not cater to the couple who did not Marry as they ought to have done, but to the couple who did marry as they ought to have so they can to turn to Jesus in order to heal the Marriage or have strength to honor Jesus as a “eunuch for the kingdom”.

The Church should be concerned for the Sacrament and the genuine Christian first and foremost.
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If I have it right, the Catholic Church does not recognize the legitimacy of a civil marriage. But you are actually pointing out that they do recognize a civil divorce! Not only recognize it but require it? Wow.
 
Well, the Church recognizes it as a bond of marriage. However, it does not equal or replace a Marriage in the Lord (Sacrament).

For the believer, we are expected to have a much higher standard than any other definition of marriage. So for a Christian to marry civilly as a substitute for the Sacrament is not a proper Christian marriage.

My point is still relatively in that the Church requires us to make commitments towards the breakdown of the relationship before determining if the Marriage is even an invalid sacrament.
 
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rcwitness said:
Here lies a problem…

In order to receive the most official (yet not infallible) assessment of whether a Marriage is bound in the Lord from the Church, YOU MUST CIVILLY DIVORCE FIRST!!

So receiving affirmation whether or not the Sacrament is valid or not is granted only after commitments to give up are required.
Click to expand...
It’s not a problem.

Of course you have to divorce first! The Church isn’t about to give “affirmation [of] whether or not the Sacrament is valid while that marriage is being lived out by the spouses” because marriage enjoys the favor of the law and is presumed valid (unless you made no effort for it to be valid in the first place). So, there is no reason to ask for affirmation.

A nullity proceeding isn’t meant to “affirm” a marriage, per se (or do “deny” it, either) – it’s meant to investigate whether the validity that had been presumed is actually present.
 
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I know what is coming…

The tribunal cannot determine whether the Sacrament is valid, but only if the Sacrament is invalid
 
rcwitness said:
The tribunal cannot determine whether the Sacrament is valid, but only if the Sacrament is invalid
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The tribunal is asked “is the marriage invalid because of this particular reason?” It gives a yes or no answer. Period.
 
Gorgias said:
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rcwitness:
The tribunal cannot determine whether the Sacrament is valid, but only if the Sacrament is invalid
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The tribunal is asked “is the marriage invalid because of this particular reason?” It gives a yes or no answer. Period.
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After requiring certain commitments to give up on the relationship.
 
rcwitness said:
Well, the Church recognizes it as a bond of marriage. However, it does not equal or replace a Marriage in the Lord (Sacrament).
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No. If one or both are Catholic, then the Church does not recognize the civil marriage as valid.

If they are both baptized Christians of another denomination, then the Church recognizes their civil marriage as valid and sacramental.
 
The Tribunal is determining the validity of the marriage—whether it was putatively sacramental or not isn’t relevant.
 
Gorgias said:
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rcwitness:
After requiring certain commitments to give up on the relationship.
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There’s no reason to comment on the relationship if it’s ongoing. It’s already presumed valid.
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So bear with me for a bit…when two Catholics contact a Priest to arrange for Sacremental Marriage in the church, does he not interact with the couple to determine that in fact if he performs the marriage and it is properly done before God that there is no question of its validity or does he just assume it is valid?
 
JulianN said:
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rcwitness:
Well, the Church recognizes it as a bond of marriage. However, it does not equal or replace a Marriage in the Lord (Sacrament).
Click to expand...
No. If one or both are Catholic, then the Church does not recognize the civil marriage as valid.

If they are both baptized Christians of another denomination, then the Church recognizes their civil marriage as valid and sacramental.
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If they convert to the Catholic faith, do the same laws of annulments apply?
 
JulianN said:
He does not do an in-depth psychological assessment of the couple.
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So a Priest might actually be performing an invalid marriage because of a hidden or unknown action or attribute of one of the couple?
 
Yes. Any Catholic marriage later ruled invalid by the Tribunal meets this criterion.
 
Right. And apparently is prevalent.

I believe a crisis in the Church. Similar, or worse than some Protestant denomination divorce rates.
 
I don’t think it’s a crisis. Many, many Catholics and Protestant Christians are nominally Christian. It makes sense that they dont mean the vows at the time of the marriage. And if they don’t mean what they’re saying, it’s grounds for annulment.

That’s just the nature of human beings. Christ even talks about some seeds getting thrown among the rocks or some vines being choked by thorns.
 
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JulianN said:
Yes. Any Catholic marriage later ruled invalid by the Tribunal meets this criterion.
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I hope I can ask this without incurring wrath from anyone Catholic.

I have been reading that even if a Priest who is consecrating in the Mass is evilly guilty of child molestation, his own sinfulness does not affect the validity of the Eucharist nor the validity of the Absolution of someone’s sins in the Confessional. Given that, I presume that neither does anything hidden within the Priest affect the validity of a Marriage, only what might be hidden in the couple?
 
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