{"id":235,"date":"2010-06-12T07:04:11","date_gmt":"2010-06-12T11:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=235"},"modified":"2010-06-12T20:01:01","modified_gmt":"2010-06-13T00:01:01","slug":"what-is-an-annulment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/what-is-an-annulment\/","title":{"rendered":"What is an Annulment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week I was talking to a couple and they said they had read that an annulment is a “Catholic divorce.”\u00a0 This is not<\/em> true.<\/p>\n

A divorce is a civil (government) process that ends a legal relationship.\u00a0 It views marriage as a contract formed when the couple make their vows to each other.\u00a0 The divorce says that the contract has been broken by one or both spouses.\u00a0 A divorce may <\/em>determine that one spouse or both is responsible for the break-up of the marriage.\u00a0 Some states allow “no-fault” divorces where the couple may just agree to end the marriage without providing a reason.\u00a0 So much for “to death do you part!”<\/p>\n

As Catholics, we believe that marriage is not just a contract.\u00a0 It is a covenant that is based on love and is an image for us of the covenant that God has formed with his people.\u00a0 God established the covenant never to be broken.\u00a0 The couple make their vows to each other for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health until death.<\/p>\n

As a covenant, marriage is not to be broken.\u00a0 It doesn’t always go the way we wish but we are called to rely on God and to do our best to make the marriage work.\u00a0 However, the Church recognizes that there are reasons for a couple to separate.\u00a0 For instance if there is physical abuse in the marriage, the church says the victim of the abuse should leave for their own safety.<\/p>\n

This does not “end the marriage covenant.”\u00a0 In such cases, the “victim” may obtain a legal divorce to protect themself.\u00a0 Then, the question of an annulment arises.\u00a0 It may seem strange but abuse does not guarantee an annulment.\u00a0 This is because an annulment does not end a marriage.\u00a0 Remember, what God has joined, man must not divide.<\/p>\n

What does an annulment do then?\u00a0<\/p>\n

An annulment reviews the history of the couple to establish that the marriage was not “valid” in the fullest sense.\u00a0 By valid, we do not mean that there was not a marriage.\u00a0 The couple was married (and all children are legitimate).\u00a0 This is where\u00a0it becomes difficult to find the right words to explain this.\u00a0 \u00a0By valid<\/em>, we mean that for some reason the marriage did not have the “fullness” it was meant to.\u00a0 The most common issue is “consent.”\u00a0 Was the couple mature enough to understand what marriage is?\u00a0 Was there alcohol or drug problems that kept one of the spouses from understanding what they were committing to?\u00a0 Were there psychological problems?\u00a0 Was one of the spouses forced into the marriage?\u00a0 All of these may <\/em>have affected the couple’s ability to consent<\/em> to the marriage.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to explain what an annulment is but I hope this helps.\u00a0 For more on the Catholic understanding of marriage check out http:\/\/foryourmarriage.org\/<\/a>\u00a0from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week I was talking to a couple and they said they had read that an annulment is a “Catholic divorce.”\u00a0 This is not true. A divorce is a civil (government) process that ends a legal relationship.\u00a0 It views marriage as a contract formed when the couple make their vows to each other.\u00a0 The divorce …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘What is an Annulment?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[11],"tags":[47],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-3N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":237,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235\/revisions\/237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}