Although in common parlance the expression “marriage annulment” is often used to refer to the marriage nullity process, the Church does not view this process as one of simply granting or not granting an annulment. A marriage, whoever has contracted it, cannot be “annulled” or “become null” due to the intervention of events following the wedding and / or by the will of an external authority. In other words, the validity of a marriage coincides with the validity of the consent of the parties expressed at the time of the celebration. Anything that happened before or after that date will eventually serve as evidence. The ecclesiastical authority, represented in the trial by the judge, is therefore not free to grant an annulment merely at his discretion, as if it were an act dependent on his benevolence or mercy, on his pastoral concern or empathy. He is only able to recognize and declare the nullity of marriage when the specific conditions are met.
The process of nullity of religious marriage
Marriage nullity in Rome: The process of “nullity of marriage” is intended to make the Truth publicly manifest. Marriage, in fact, can be null, and therefore invalid from the beginning (from the wedding), for a defined series of reasons indicated in the Code of Canon Law, including: incapacity of one or both contractors due to psychoaffective immaturity, dependent disorder personality, narcissism, alcoholism, drug addiction, lack of internal freedom, etc. or by exclusion of the indissolubility of marriage when one or both spouses reserve the right to resort to divorce, by exclusion of offspring or marital fidelity, by exclusion of the bonum coniugum (i.e. an equal relationship between spouses), by compulsion, willful misconduct, error, ignorance, condition, impotence, defect of the canonical form, etc. The nullity, or not, of the marriage will be declared with a sentence of three judges at the end of a complex process, in which the initiating party is necessarily assisted by a lawyer.
Annulment of religious marriage: the nature of the executive sentence
Marriage nullity in Rome: The affirmative sentence, issued by the court of first instance is executive in that it produces its effects. These effects include the possibility of remarrying in church, unless the other party in the case or the Defender of the Bond lodges an appeal within fifteen days to the higher court, be it the Roman Rota or other competent court. The affirmative sentence in the second instance, proposed following an appeal and confirming another affirmative sentence, is enforceable and can no longer be challenged except with the extraordinary means of the complaint nullitatis and the nova causae propositio. Similarly, the affirmative sentence issued in the third instance is by the Roman Rota. The sentence of declaration of nullity of marriage allows the parties to remarry in the Church, but does not affect the rights and duties of assistance originating between the parts and to the children.
Annulment of religious marriage: the processus brevior
Marriage nullity in Rome: When both parties are in agreement and the nullity is evident, a processus brevior may be requested from the diocesan Bishop at the end of which the Bishop declares the nullity of the marriage or remits the case to the competent ecclesiastical court for an ordinary process. The processus brevior, as the name implies, is a faster process, in which much of the preliminary activity is carried out-under the supervision of a lawyer before the introduction of the case.
