Annulment of Catholic Marriage: Process Explained

Divorce is unique among life experiences. There is no precedent that can prepare an individual for it, Catholic or not. Divorce is a process, not an event. Legal divorce can be pinpointed to a moment in time, to the signing of a court decision, but not so the experience of divorce. The experience of divorce is the result of a series of incidents that eventually erode a relationship between a husband and wife. The ending of any marriage that has endured long enough for the two partners to invest portions of their lives, money, emotions, and dreams is often a devastating experience. Persons who have experienced the heartbreak of divorce are in need of much healing. One of the healing ministries of the Catholic Church open to the divorced is the annulment process. It is a unique way of bringing closure to a sad chapter in life. The annulment process may very well reveal that though two people struggled mightily to sustain a relationship, something essential to marital consent was lacking from the beginning, and therefore, the union could not be sustained. The annulment process is a procedure in the Catholic Church that cleans up some of the spiritual damage left over from a divorce. One aspect of that damage is the inability of the divorced person to enter another valid marriage at any time in any place. The nullity declaration, if that is the outcome of the investigation, is a declaration that a person’s marriage really wasn’t a true marriage, and therefore, the divorced person is able to marry in the Catholic Church as though for the first time.