There are over six million divorced
Catholics in the United States. However one views this statistic,
it represents a searing experience of personal tragedy. Many of
those persons are wounded further by feeling cut off from the
Church, and should they remarry, they are barred from the solace
and strength of the sacraments. The annulment procedure is an
attempt to bring justice and compassion to many divorced and
separated Catholics whose marriage actually was one in appearance
only.
Misunderstanding on the procedure is due partly to the word annulment. The precise term is "declaration of nullity". A declaration of nullity is a judgment by the Church that what seemed to be a marriage never was in fact a true marriage. A declaration of nullity is granted when it can be shown that some essential or juridical defect made a particular marriage invalid from the beginning despite outward appearance, despite even the good faith of the partners or the establishment of a family.
Marriage is effected by consent, freely and knowingly saying "yes" to all that marriage involves; therefore, in considering a particular marriage, this "yes" is the key issue. When they said their vows, did both partners freely accept and clearly understand the lifelong commitment they were making? Did both partners, at that time, have the personal capacity to carry out consent, to form a community of life with the chosen partner?
While carefully protecting Jesus' teaching of the sacredness of marriage, the Church also is obliged to provide justice for anyone whose marriage has failed when it can be shown with moral certainty that the marriage lacked from its onset some essential element for a true sacramental bond. The indissolubility of sacramental marriage remains a central Catholic teaching. Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II strongly reaffirmed the uncompromising doctrine that a consummated, sacramental marriage bond is lifelong and cannot be broken by civil or Church authority.
The marriage tribunals of the Church do not seek to assign blame for marriage breakup. They seek only to understand a failed marriage, and determine whether either or both partners lacked proper consent or the ability to carry out consent. Church law affirms the personal relationship, the intimate partnership between the spouses, as a crucial, basic dimension of marriage. While conjugal union is expressed most specifically and intimately in sexual relations, it also extends to the couple's total life together, to physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual community. In short, marriage is a union of persons, not simply a union of bodies. The purpose of marriage is to give life, but equally, to share it.