Annulments: Not Catholic Divorce

To start out we first need to talk a little about what marriage is. To do that I turn to the Catechism of the Catholic Church who says it better than I can.

1601 "The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament."

1603 "The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage." (see note 87) “The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics.”

In these two paragraphs we see that marriage is described as a covenant and not a human institution. The modern day secular culture just views marriage as a contract. A contract can be dissolved with the consent of two parties and divorce lawyers are more than happy to help you out with that. Marriage however, though joined with the consent of the baptized couple, is joined by God.

Mk 10:9 “What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

It is the constant teaching of New Testament that marriage is indissoluble.

Mt 5:32 “But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” Mt 19:9 “And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Mk 10:2-12 “And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, 'Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?' He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?' They said, 'Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.' But Jesus said to them, 'For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.' And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.'”

Lk 16:18 "Every one who divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

1 Cor 7:10 “To the married I give charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from her husband.”

“Ah ha” critics will say pointing to a supposed Mt 5:32’s exception clause on the ground of unchastity. The Greek word in question here is 'porneia' (Strong’s g4202). This word is most often translated as fornication in the New Testament. It doesn’t appear to be the case here because if one is married then one is not committing fornication but rather adultery. This word can also mean illicit sexual intercourse. Assuming it means adultery here for a minute and is interpreted as such to be an exception then think of what that means. So we have one party who wants a divorce in order to marry someone else. In order to get Jesus’ approval, all that person has to do is commit the sin of adultery with that other person and they are free to marry the other person. Does that sound like Jesus at all? This word 'porneia' has another use and it is referring sexual acts with a close relative. If the persons were too close of kin who were “married” this would have been unlawful and would mean a marriage did not exist and therefore the person is free to marry again. St Thomas Aquinas discusses marrying of a close relative in the Summa Theologica in the section on Impediment and Affinity. This is what he says: “On the contrary, Whatever is unlawful can be denounced. But the marriage of relatives by affinity and consanguinity is unlawful. Therefore it can be denounced.” Another possibility for this verse which seems to be the majority of opinion on this verse is these exception clauses only appear in Matthew’s gospel, and Matthew’s gospel was written for Jews. The Jews allowed divorce and the school of Hillel allowed divorce for any bad temper which made the husband’s life uncomfortable. With such ease for divorce this left women in a position to want to marry again but this would make her an adulteress. So this is the majority opinion of early Church that easy divorce forced the women to become adulteresses. Another take is that it says divorce makes her an adulteress except for porneia, in which case she is already an adulteress by committing the sin. So there are multiple takes on this verse, but one thing is certain and that is the tradition of this verse only gave prescription for a separation but it did not give any permission for remarriage. Examples can be found in John Chrysostom’s Commentary on Matthew Sermon on the Mount book 1 and Origen’s Book 14 commentary on Matthew’s gospel. If an annulment results in the two people being able to remarry how is that different than modern day divorce?

The annulment process looks into the circumstances at the time that the marriage was first “contracted” to see if something was missing that is essential to have a valid marriage. If something was missing then a marriage never existed and the persons are free to marry. In a divorce the persons acknowledge there was a marriage and they are ending it. What are some things that would make a marriage null?

Marrying a close relative
The marriage was never consummated
One party was deceptive before the wedding saying he/she wanted children but really didn’t
One party did not give full consent whether by force or out of fear
One party is already married and the spouse is still living
One party was too young to understand marriage
One party was permanently impotent whether by injury or birth defect
One party had no intention of keeping wedding vows whether it has to do with the indissolubility of marriage or marriage fidelity
Ignorance of what marriage is
Could not give consent due to insanity or drunkenness
Got married for an ulterior motive such as money or citizenship

For Catholics: For a sacrament to be valid Catholics must follow the proper form

The wedding was not witnessed by a representative of the Church or was given a dispensation by the bishop

What is Pauline Privilege?

Essentially the Pauline Privilege comes from the apostle Paul in 1 Cor 7:13-15. “If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound. For God has called us to peace.”

This verse explains how a natural marriage can be dissolved if the unbelieving party deserts the believing party. Now you may be thinking “didn’t you just spend 2 pages explaining how marriage is indissoluble and now you are saying it can be dissolved?” A sacramental marriage is a marriage between two persons who are baptized and is indissoluble. Code of Canon Law Can. 1141 A marriage that is ratum et consummatum [ratified and consummated] can be dissolved by no human power and by no cause, except death. A natural marriage is when non baptized persons are married. Can. 1143 Sect. 1. "A marriage entered into by two non-baptized persons is dissolved by means of the Pauline privilege in favor of the faith of the party who has received baptism by the very fact that a new marriage is contracted by the same party, provided that the non-baptized party departs." Sect. 2. "The non-baptized party is considered to depart if he or she does not wish to cohabit with the baptized party or to cohabit peacefully without aVront [affront] to the Creator unless the baptized party, after baptism was received, has given the other a just cause for departing." What is the Petrine Privilege?

This is when a Christian marries a non Christian. A valid marriage bond is formed but it is not a sacramental marriage. This can be dissolved but only by the Holy See in certain circumstances. Why are there so many annulments? In the 1960s there were around 300 annulments each year and now there are 60000 according to the 1994 edition of the Catholic Almanac p 236. Granted the US population has almost doubled since the 1960s but that is still an increase of one hundred times. A lot happened in the 60s that can contribute to the increase. The work of Pope Paul VI called Humanae Vitae prophetically gives us the answer in paragraph 17: “It is also to be feared that the man, growing used to the employment of anti-conceptive practices, may finally lose respect for the woman and, no longer caring for her physical and psychological equilibrium, may come to the point of considering her as a mere instrument of selfish enjoyment, and no longer as his respected and beloved companion.” That was written around the time that the birth control pill came out. We are supposed to love people and use objects, not love objects and use people. This is the natural result when the unitive and the procreative aspects of the marital act are separated. It no longer is a total gift of self to your spouse. This leads to the divorce mentality. A study done by physicians for life in 2001 found that couples that used natural family planning (NFP) had a divorce rate of .2%. Couples who use NFP communicate better, they respect the body the way it was made, and respect each other. Despite St. John Paul II’s great teaching on Theology of the Body; most Catholics do not know about it, practice NFP, or really understand marriage. In the 60s there was also a great lack of catechesis among Catholics. This lack of catechesis is why there are so many non sacramental marriages. In fact as many as 2/3rds of the annulments granted have to do with a psychological component that hindered the person in giving full informed consent. This falls under Canon 1095 of the Code of Canon Law. Can. 1095 "The following are incapable of contracting marriage: 1/ those who lack the sufficient use of reason; 2/ those who suVer [suffer] from a grave defect of discretion of judgment concerning the essential matrimonial rights and duties mutually to be handed over and accepted; 3/ those who are not able to assume the essential obligations of marriage for causes of a psychic nature." It is debated whether this canon is overused or abused, but I will leave that up to the tribunal who investigates these things. Just because the annulment paper work was filled out and sent in does not mean an annulment will be granted. It often takes around a year to get an answer so one should not get involved in another relationship until the tribunal makes a declaration. For those that an annulment is not granted, it is good for the children's sake to at least live in the same house but have different bedrooms. If that is impossible and a civil divorce is declared, keep in mind that in the eyes of the Church and by extension God; they are still married and any new attempted marriage would be adultery. In cases of people who have already remarried and have come to the conclusion that the current relationship they are in is invalid; these people must live as brother and sister.