Rebecca New:
A friend of mine got a divorce from her husband of 23 years. I told her that even though she had a civil divorce that in the eyes of the Church she was still married. I think they both were bored or lusting or both. Anyway, they got back together and remarried in a civil ceremony. They are truly happy now, more than I ever saw them before anyway. My point is, if they would have gotten an annullment, would they be able to remarry in the Catholic Church? I think I recall reading that it would be against God to remarry (Old Testament).
Most simply said, a declaration of nullity basically says that a marriage to which God would consider the parties bound did not occur in the first place despite the ceremony and the good will of the parties. There would have to be some fundamental deficiency in the consent, capacity, or legal freedom of the parties to enter marriage as established in Church law. This would have to be proven with moral certainty before a competent Church court called a tribunal, and then ratified or confirmed in some way by a second tribunal. Only then would the parties be considered free to enter into a marriage ceremony in the church.
Becoming bored, lustful, or committing adultery, are not reasons in Church law for a decision for nullity. While they *may reflect fundamental and grave psychological deficiencies, we can never presume they do so. *
To the contrary, they often reflect failure in the moral order combined with a failure to use the natural and supernatural means of supporting and healing wounds or even serious limitations in the parties and their relationship. Those kinds of failures to not admit to a decree of nullity.
In this case, it appears your friends took advantage of those means. Since the Church never considered them “unmarried” by virtue of a civil divorce, we can only speak of their remarriage as merely for civil effects.
The dispensation of the Old Testament allowed divorce and remarriage, although the prophets railed against “divorcing the wife of your youth.”
Christ returned to the permanence of marriage intended at the time of creation in Genesis which did not admit to divorce, except in the case of “porneia.”
This can be explored at
catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0007bt.asp which pretty much presents the correct Catholic understanding.
