How could my father get marriage prep before his annulment was granted?!

[mynde]

My father wanted to marry another woman but needed an annulment granted before doing so. During the annulment process with my mother, his non-Catholic girlfriend was granted an annulment from her husband and she and my father were already attending counseling to prepare them for the marriage ceremony in the Catholic Church. This all occurred before an annulment from my mother was granted.

How is this possible? Is it possible that the diocese was irresponsible in handling this situation? Is there a possibility that the annulment is invalid, not the marriage to my mother who followed through and supported my Catholic upbringing and my father for over thirty years?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I don’t know how this situation could have happened. Presuming that your understanding of the situation was correct, the parish staff should not have been giving your father and his fiancee pre-marital counseling before both of them had received their decrees of nullity. For that matter, your father and his fiancee should not even have been conducting a romantic relationship until both parties had received annulments because the Church would presume them married to their original spouses unless and until annulments were granted.

Although annulments are not infallible statements by the Church, they are presumed to be valid. Those who marry again after receiving an annulment are acting within the Church’s sacramental discipline and do not sin by remarrying even if the tribunal made a mistake in granting the annulment.

Not knowing any of the particulars of your parents’ case, I can only presume that their annulment was granted correctly. Because an annulment is a decree that a sacramental marriage did not exist from the beginning of the marriage, the length of the putative marriage does not determine its sacramentality. What determines sacramentatlity is whether the couple validly conferred upon each other the sacrament of matrimony on their wedding day. Even so, the longer the putative marriage lasts, it is indeed true that there is a greater sense of tragedy for the couple and their family should there be an annulment. You and your mother are in our prayers here at Catholic Answers. God bless.

Recommended reading:

Annulments: What You Need to Know by Jimmy Akin
Annulments and the Catholic Church by Edward Peters