The annulment course of throughout the Catholic Church addresses conditions the place a wedding is believed to be invalid from its inception. This course of differs considerably from civil dissolution, because it examines whether or not the important parts required for a sacramental marriage have been current on the time the vows have been exchanged. If a wedding is discovered to be invalid, the Church declares {that a} legitimate marriage by no means existed. An instance could be a case the place one occasion entered the wedding with a pre-existing situation, resembling an incapability to consent freely or a hidden intention to not have youngsters, which might have prevented a real sacramental union.
Understanding the excellence between civil divorce and annulment is important. Civil divorce dissolves a legally acknowledged marriage, permitting people to remarry within the eyes of the state. Nevertheless, within the Catholic Church, a wedding is taken into account a lifelong dedication and a sacrament. An annulment, subsequently, just isn’t merely the termination of a wedding however moderately a declaration by the Church that, regardless of appearances, a sound marriage by no means got here into being in keeping with Church legislation. This willpower can have important implications for people in search of to remarry throughout the Church.
