Is age 18 too young to enter into a valid marriage?

[Reynard]

My husband, who is non-Catholic, needs to get an annulment for us to have our marriage blessed in the Church. Until this happens, I cannot receive the sacraments. I have recently learned that he was 18 when he married. Can his immaturity be a reason for his marriage to be annulled? I am trying to rejoin my faith and this annulment is a huge consideration. I had no idea that a non-Catholic civil marriage could have such an effect on my religious life. Wish I had found this site sooner. Thank you and God bless!

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

In and of itself, age 18 is not too young for marriage. Both the Church and state ordinarily allow legal adults to marry and 18 is the age of legal adulthood. My own grandparents married at 19 and remained married for 58 years until my grandfather’s death.

That said, we now live in a Peter Pan society that is filled with men and women who remain immature for many years despite their actual age. Certainly, many young people now in their late teens are too immature for marriage despite being legal adults. So, yes, if your husband was married at age 18, he may have been too immature for marriage and that immaturity may have impeded matrimonial consent. But this is something for a marriage tribunal to determine after studying the circumstances of your husband’s marriage.

In the meantime, you can receive the sacraments if you commit to living with your husband as brother and sister (i.e., abstaining from marital relations) while awaiting a decision from the marriage tribunal.