By Fr. AVS Pradeep –
The Catholic Church understands marriage to be an enduring and exclusive partnership for the mutual giving and receiving of love and the procreation and education of children. Marriage is much more than a legal contract; it is a sacred bond in which a man and a woman totally commit themselves to the good of each other for their entire lives. A sacramental bond can be dissolved only by the death of one of the spouses.
What is a valid Catholic Marriage?
In the Catholic Church, a marriage is considered valid when:
- It is celebrated in a ceremony which is legally acceptable in the eyes of the Church [Proper Canonical Form]
- Both parties are free to marry each other [No Impediments]
- Each party intends from the beginning of the marriage to accept God’s plan for married life as taught by the Church [Properties of Marriage]
- Each party has the physical and the psychological ability to live out the consent initially given at the wedding [Consent]
- The Church presumes that every marriage is valid until the opposite is proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
What is an Annulment?
An annulment, properly called a declaration of nullity, is a discovery that at the time of the wedding, some essential feature was not present, the marriage was incomplete, and the Church, after thorough investigation, declares that a valid marriage did not exist.
Is this same as Divorce?
A declaration of nullity is not some sort of “Catholic divorce” by which the Church allows the marriage bond to be broken. Unlike a 16 civil divorce, a declaration of nullity does not claim to break the marriage bond, but it is rather a statement that the marriage, as it is understood by the Church, was never validly existed in the first place (that there was from the start no true marriage). Civil divorce dissolves and/or breaks a marriage, while a church’s decree of nullity declares that there never was a true bond to begin with. So it’s never a divorce.
How is the nullity of Marriage declared?
In a declaration of nullity process, the tribunal judges conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the marriage, especially prior to and at the time the couple exchanged their vows.
The judges evaluate and examine the marriage for the necessary elements of a valid union: consent, permanence, fidelity, true companionship and love of the spouses, and openness to bearing and educating children. The tribunal seeks to determine if there was anything that prevented those elements from being present from the beginning or if one or both spouses were unable to enter into a valid union due to physical, psychological or circumstantial causes.
What is a Tribunal?
A tribunal is the Church’s court of justice. As the compassionate arm of the Church, a tribunal is where rights are upheld and justice is rendered in judicial matters pertaining to ecclesiastical law. The Tribunal’s purpose is two-fold: the first is to safeguard the rights of all Catholics in the Archdiocese, from Archbishop to catechumen.
The second is to act as a trial court for contentious cases referred to it by the Archbishop.
From a practical standpoint, a tribunal functions principally in the investigation of marriage nullity cases. The entire process leading to a declaration of nullity is regulated by the 1983 Code of Canon Law and other Ecclesiastical norms, which are universal and govern tribunals in every diocese throughout the world.
Do the declarations of the Tribunal have civil effects?
Declarations of nullity have no civil effects. There are no civil effects of a Church Declaration of Nullity. It does not affect in any manner the legitimacy of children (see Canon 1137), property rights, inheritance rights, visitations rights, names, etc. A Church annulment is a 17 declaration from the Catholic Church that a particular union, presumably begun in good faith and thought by all to be a valid marriage, was in fact an invalid union as the Catholic Church defines marriage.
There is no attempt in the annulment process to accuse or to punish individuals. On the contrary the purpose of an annulment procedure is, whenever possible, to reconcile persons to full sacramental participation in the community of the Catholic Church.
What is the Office of the Tribunal?
The Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Visakhapatnam is appointed by the Archbishop with the power to adjudicate in accordance with Canon Law. Among its primary duties is to examine petitions for a Declarations of Nullity, in which someone petitions the tribunal to determine if their prior marriage may be declared null.
Fr. AVS Pradeep is Judicial Vicar, Archdiocese of Visakhapatnam