If someone that has been denied the annulment (heard that there will be less annulments granted than in the past) is thinking and hoping to remarry , should this person not receive communion?
Granted they have not committed the act of sin… (assuming they are not having sexual relations) but are planning to remarry. Does the “planning” stage put them in the act of grave sin?
This is such an interesting topic. Its all too common – something so many catholics are dealing with every day.
There is not a quota for how many annulments the church will grant. A decree of nullity is solely based on whether or not the marriage in question was sacramental. If the marriage was valid at the time it took place, any issue that came up during the marriage may be grounds for not living together, but not necessarily mean the marriage itself was not sacramental. I may not be using the exact canon terms, valid, licit, a sacrament, but I am trying to answer your question.
Both parties in a marriage must be free to marry.
No undue pressure from parents etc. No existing marriage.
You cannot marry if you are drunk or under the influence of drugs like meth.
Both parties must be open to having children. If a party never intends to have children and lied about it, that may be reason for an annulment.
So just say as a story, two adults fall in love and are married in the church. They have never been married before. They are both sober. They both really want to have kids together.
They have a couple of kids. The man loses his job, starts drinking all of the time and starts to hit his wife. This is obviously not good for the wife or the children.
The woman may move to safety. The woman may even obtain a civil divorce. The woman may petition for annulment and it could be denied because the church finds that before the life changing circumstances the marriage was valid, licit, sacramental.
What this means then is that the woman is still Catholic and can still receive all of the sacraments including Eucharist. It also means she should not re-marry.
There is a LOT of misunderstanding about the church teaching on marriage and decree of nullity and this post does not even begin to address all of the intricacies, but I am addressing the questions most often asked in RCIA class.
