Annulment FAQs

“Annulments” are more properly called declarations of nullity. A declaration of nullity, whether from the civil government or from the Church, is a judicial statement declaring that one or more of the elements that is essential for contracting a marriage was lacking. It is a declaration saying that while there was a real relationship with perhaps many good elements, there was nonetheless something fundamental missing at the time consent was given on the wedding day. Legally speaking, because of this lack, a marriage that has been declared null never existed.

A tribunal is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a court of justice.” This is exactly how it is in the Catholic Church. The spiritual society of the Church, like any society, has laws, courts, and judges to safeguard revealed truth and promote the traditions of the Church as passed down through the centuries. Ecclesiastical tribunals, like civil courts, are simply the judicial branch of the Church. For annulments, the tribunal is the diocesan office that will process the various cases that come in.

No. While the two may look the same on the outside (two people no longer share the common life they once did), a declaration of nullity is conceptually different from a divorce. A divorce is the dissolution of a civilly valid marriage contract. In a divorce, the marriage did exist, but it was dissolved. In a declaration of nullity, a valid marriage did not come into existence on the wedding day, as everyone had presumed.

Marriage is understood by the Church to be a covenant by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. This relationship exists whether or not the couple is Catholic, some other kind of Christian, or not Christian. In other words, Catholics recognize the validity of non-Catholic marriages. However, when two baptized Christians (Catholic or non-Catholic) are married, their marriage becomes a special sign to the world of Christ’s marriage to the Church, and special graces are given to the couple in order to bring about that signification. The Church understands part of that signification to include Christ’s absolute fidelity to the Church (and vice versa) in a manner that makes that Divine Marriage indissoluble. Thus, if Christian marriage is a participation and signification of this Divine Marriage, their marriages are indissoluble, too. This is the beauty of Christian marriage: the gift of grace and the ability to show to the world the permanent love the Bridegroom and Bride have for each other!

This is a complicated answer, but here is a very short summary. Marriage, as was just said, is a covenant, which is one particular type of contract. A contract of any kind requires three things. First, the terms of the contract must be consented to. If the person doesn’t consent to the contract, even if they sign it, it is an invalid contract. Second, consent must be manifested in the correct way (like a signature, or verbal acceptance before some official). If a couple does not go before a civilly licensed minister of marriage, the state does not recognize the marriage. Third, it must be entered by those capable in law of doing so. For example, a person in a 5-year work contract cannot sign another contract that violates the first one; he is not legally capable of signing that new contract in the first place. Marriage has all of these things. First, the terms of the marriage contract must be consented to. Second, consent must be manifested in the right way. Third, marriage can only be contracted by those capable in law of doing so. So, when the Church looks at a particular marriage to discover whether it was contracted invalidly, it looks at any or all of those three things. If consent was lacking, if it wasn’t manifested properly, or if the person was legally incapable of contracting marriage in the first place, then a marriage can be declared null. For a more detailed explanation of these three things, please see questions 14-22.

Catholics regard marriages between non-Catholics to be just as valid and binding as Catholic marriages. In other words, since it makes no difference whether the couple was Catholic or not, the thought process behind marriage applies to both Catholics and non-Catholics. Consent is what brings about marriage. This is vitally important because it means that it is not the priest or justice of the peace who marries the husband and wife; rather, it is the husband and wife who marry each other – again, true of either Catholics or non-Catholics. No one else can supply consent except the husband and wife. Therefore, because consent fundamentally makes marriage and not the approval of some minister, no one other than the husband and wife can dissolve the marital contract. In other words, the justice of the peace cannot give you a divorce because the justice of the peace did not marry you. However, since the nature of this contract specifically involved the parties consenting to indissolubility, the husband and wife, by their consent, have made themselves incapable of dissolving the bond as well. We can suppose a scenario where a husband and wife consent to all the parts of marriage except indissolubility (they reject the “‘til death do us part” aspect), but we would call that bond by another name. Because an indissoluble relationship between a man and a woman is different than all other kinds of relationships, it has a different name: marriage. As a result, since we presume that anyone who comes to us was married, i.e. is in a presumably indissoluble relationship, we don’t have the power to dissolve what they brought about. What we can do is investigate to see if the contract was somehow null from the beginning (see questions 14-22) which would mean that the person is in fact not in an indissoluble relationship and as a result is free to marry.

No, it does not. Legitimacy refers to the legal standing of the child with respect to things like inheritance rights, which the Church does not have. It also only applies to children born of a union not presumed to be valid. Anyone coming to the tribunal for a declaration of nullity will have had a presumably valid marriage, so as long as the union is presumed valid, the Church considers those children to be perfectly legitimate. Even if a marriage is turns out to be invalid, Catholics recognize that the couple was still acting in good faith the whole time, and thinks of these children no differently than children born from a valid marriage.

There are two main processes that are used depending on the circumstances of the person seeking a declaration of nullity. The simpler process involves merely the presentation of documents which establish that one or both parties to the marriage was not able to contract marriage in the first place. The second process is a little more intricate, and it basically involves one or both spouses trying to prove that consent was lacking in some way. They do this by telling their own story, bringing in trusted family or friends to confirm their story, any supporting documents, etc.

Right when the process gets underway, you will be given a case sponsor who will help you to formulate a convincing argument and tell you the specifics of what you will end up needing to bring in to the tribunal. Everyone who petitions will need a baptismal certificate (if they have been baptized), civil and ecclesiastical marriage certificates (if they have them), and signed civil divorce decrees. Most people also end up needing to bring in witnesses (family or friends) to confirm and support the claims being made. For example, a man may claim that he did not intend to be faithful to his wife, and that he even told his best man that on the night before his wedding. He should anticipate having to ask his best man to come and testify before the tribunal. Similarly, you know better than we do who or what you need to bring in order to support your claims. Thinking ahead about that and having those people or documents ready will help the process go much more smoothly.

Absolutely. The only people who will see the information you submit are the parties to the marriage (you and your former spouse, assuming he/she chooses to be involved in the annulment process) and the appropriate tribunal officials. No outside persons are permitted to view information pertaining to a case that is not their own.

No, not everyone who petitions the tribunal for a declaration of nullity will receive one. The law presumes the validity of your marriage, so if there is not sufficient evidence to overturn that presumption, the tribunal cannot in good conscience proclaim what it cannot prove.

No. Either party may appeal the decision of the tribunal to the appropriate appellate tribunal.

The tribunal is dedicated to processing cases as quickly as possible. However, it is impossible to accurately predict the exact length of time required to process a particular case. Church law requires that cases be processed according to the order in which they are received. Current experience indicates that when the required information is readily available, approximately one year from the time the case is accepted is the average length of time required to process a case. This is simply an average, it is not a guarantee. Some cases require more or less time to be processed.

In order to validly enter a contract, one must consent to it, manifest that consent in the way prescribed by law, and be legally capable of entering the contract.

Corresponding to consent, its manifestation, and legal capability are three invalidating categories: defect of consent, lack or defect of form, and impediments. Defects of consent invalidate the requirement of consent. Lack or defect of form invalidates the requirement of proper manifestation (i.e. consent is not expressed in the way prescribed by law). And an impediment renders one legally incapable of making a contract.

An impediment to marriage is something that pre-exists the act of consent that would impede a person from getting married. For example, one impediment to marriage is marriage itself! If someone is already married, they cannot marry someone else. The Church, along with many civil jurisdictions, also does not recognize a “marriage” of a man and his adoptive sister, for example. They too would be incapable of marriage in the first place. Therefore, if a man and woman discovered that they were actually adoptive siblings, then the marriage is null on account of the impediment of adoption. Consent may not have been lacking, but they were not legally able to marry each other in the first place, even though they didn’t know it.

It depends on the kind of impediment. Some impediments are established by God. Since the Church has no authority to contradict the will of God, then she cannot dispense from these impediments. If, however, the impediment was established by the Church, then the Church can dispense with that law since it is the Church which established the impediment. Another important thing to note is that impediments established by the Church do not apply to non-Catholics. Impediments from divine law, however, do.

A defect of form is when the couple does not get married in the way set forth by law. In most civil jurisdictions, for example, if a couple wishes to have their marriage recognized by the state, they must go before a properly deputed minister of the state and exchange consent. This could be called the “civil form of marriage.” If a couple does not marry according to the civil form, their marriage will not be civilly recognized.

Yes. The Church, like any civil jurisdiction, has also established certain formalities to observe in the celebration of Catholic marriage. They are actually pretty simple: the couple must 1) be married by a properly authorized minister of the Church 2) before any two persons who act as witnesses. This is called the canonical form of marriage. So, a defect of form could be if the minister wasn’t given proper delegation, if the couple didn’t use a proper minister at all, or if somehow there were not two witnesses present when vows were exchanged. All Catholics, even fallen away Catholics, are bound to observe canonical form in order for the Church to recognize their marriage. This requirement is present even if only one of the spouses is Catholic.

Yes, there are some circumstances in which it can be given. If a dispensation from canonical form is granted, then the marriage is recognized by the Church even though canonical form wasn’t observed. If, however, the dispensation was needed and the couple attempts marriage without it, this is a defect of form. Because of this, their marriage would not be recognized in the Church, and all the tribunal would need is the civil marriage certificate and the baptismal certificate of the Catholic to show that the marriage took place outside the Church. After it can be shown that no dispensation was given, the person is free to marry in the Church.

A defect of consent occurs when one or both parties does not consent to marriage in some way or another. A clearer example with a different kind of contract might be more illustrative. A man signs a contract to play for the Mississippi Braves, a minor league baseball team. If he (somehow) thought he was instead signing a contract for the Atlanta Braves, or didn’t intend to fulfill some or all the terms of the contract despite signing it, or was forced to sign by someone else, or somehow lacked the mental capacity to understand what he was doing, etc., then he did not totally consent to the terms of the contract he signed, and the contract would be invalid. Similarly, for marriage, if a person thought the marriage vows meant something other than what marriage actually is, consent was lacking. If a person did not intend to fulfill some or all the terms of the marriage contract, consent was lacking. If a person was forced into marriage, consent was lacking. Finally, if a person does not have the mental capacity to intend marriage or to otherwise understand what it is he/she is consenting to, consent was lacking. These are all examples of a defect of consent. For a list and brief explanation of all the defects, see the attached sheet.

Yes and no. The Church, as a rule, recognizes the marriages of non-Catholics as equally valid because marriage is an institution that results from the way God made human beings; in this way, marriage is an institution that applies to all people of all time and all religions because it is based on human nature itself. Thus, as a baseline principle, the impediments and defects of consent inherent in the definition of marriage apply to non-Catholics as well as Catholics. Since, however, Christ raised marriage to the level of a sacrament between the baptized and gave the Church the power to bind and loose, the Church can establish more impediments and further qualify defects of consent for sacramental marriages. Canonical form, for example, applies only to Catholics, as was said. In sum, non-Catholic marriages do have impediments and defects of consent, but Catholic marriages have a few more impediments and the defects of consent are more qualified.