Is There a Scriptural Basis for Annulments?

Michie · Jan 8, 2025

Dico autem vobis quia quicumque dimiserit uxorem suam, nisi ob fornicationem (πορνείᾳ) et aliam duxerit, moechatur. Et qui dimissam duxerit, moechatur.—Our Lord Jesus Christ in St. Matthew 19:9.

Before we look at the above translations of Sacred Scripture, we must look at some definitions and statistics. First of all, there are three tiers of marriage:

Civil Marriage—this is any couple married in a fashion that is recognized by the country in which they live. Due to the rejection of the Natural Law in the United States, you can now “marry” another person of the opposite sex, the same sex, your pet, or even yourself. Some Western countries are even considering incestuous relationships as being legal and binding civil marriages. Thus, there’s an extremely low bar to effect a “civil marriage.”
Natural Marriage—this happens when a man and a woman marry. This is a slightly higher bar in today’s dark culture. For example, a Muslim man marrying a Muslim woman effect a natural marriage, but this is not a sacramental marriage. The natural marriages which are registered with the state are also civil marriages.
Sacramental Marriage—this is when a baptized man marries a baptized woman. Before Vatican II, this only included Catholics. Apparently, the new 1983 Code of Canon Law includes baptized Protestants marrying other baptized Protestants as being tantamount to a Catholic sacramental marriage. (I’m not weighing in on that debate in today’s article.)

Continued below.

Is There a Scriptural Basis for Annulments?

Dico autem vobis quia quicumque dimiserit uxorem suam, nisi ob fornicationem (πορνείᾳ) et aliam duxerit, moechatur. Et qui dimissam duxerit, moechatur.—Our Lord Jesus Christ in St. Matthew 19:9. Before we look at the above translations of Sacred Scripture, we must look at some definitions and...

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fide · Jan 8, 2025

This is a very important issue. Tremendous grief abides in the hearts of many, the painful fruit of unions not grounded in the Reality of God. This world lacks understanding of (authentic) marriage - and hence also follows "annulment," and divorce, and the current ("modern") aberrations and mutilations of what is called by the same name, "marriage." Marriage is not what the world calls "marriage," but what God created in His creation of humanity, in the beginning, with Adam and Eve. Adam found what was missing, and Eve found where she belonged, by God's intention. God truly joined them, and therefore the words of Jesus, divine Truth: "What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mt 19:6, Mk 10:9)

This indissoluble union is a prophetic truth pointing to the supernatural theological virtue of hope to be fulfilled in Glory:
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church..." (Eph 5:31-32)

Michie · Jan 8, 2025

fide said:
This is a very important issue. Tremendous grief abides in the hearts of many, the painful fruit of unions not grounded in the Reality of God. This world lacks understanding of (authentic) marriage - and hence also follows "annulment," and divorce, and the current ("modern") aberrations and mutilations of what is called by the same name, "marriage." Marriage is not what the world calls "marriage," but what God created in His creation of humanity, in the beginning, with Adam and Eve. Adam found what was missing, and Eve found where she belonged, by God's intention. God truly joined them, and therefore the words of Jesus, divine Truth: "What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." (Mt 9:6, Mk 10:9)

This indissoluble union is a prophetic truth pointing to the supernatural theological virtue of hope to be fulfilled in Glory:
"For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church..." (Eph 5:31-32)

Do you believe there are valid reasons for annulment?

fide · Jan 8, 2025

Michie said:
Do you believe there are valid reasons for annulment?

First, I'm sorry for the mistype of Mt 9:6 when I meant to type 19:6, which I've now corrected. In the passage Jesus is clear, no "putting away" one's woman [here the Greek word can be either "wife" or simply "woman"] except for "porneia" [the Greek word for sexual sin such as adultery or fornication, and figuratively - symbolically - idolatry - religious/spiritual harlotry with a pagan "god" or idol].

"Annulment" - because of the religious/spiritual significance of the holy state of marriage, as Paul clarifies in Eph. 5 - is a term created admitting a mistake - an apostasy - a falsity against a sacrament, Matrimony. It is as if a member of His Holy Bride turned to paganism: apostasy, or as if the "Christian" man rejected Christ and betrayed His Holy Bride, the Church. So what appeared to be a marriage was not; God had not joined them, what appeared to be a sacrament was a simulation, not true.

I grieve that the whole process appears and sounds so legalistic, almost bureaucratic. There can be an admission by the Church that an enormous mistake was made. We may have thought/concluded/assumed/presumed that God has joined these two together, but we were wrong.

IMHO.

Michie · Jan 8, 2025

I’m asking you. Do you believe there is ever a valid reason for annulment? There are all sorts of variables out there where its possible. The Church obviously see’s that as well.

fide · Jan 8, 2025

Michie said:
I’m asking you. Do you believe there is ever a valid reason for annulment? There are all sorts of variables out there where its possible. The Church obviously see’s that as well.

I answered you:
"I grieve that the whole process appears and sounds so legalistic, almost bureaucratic. There can be an admission by the Church that an enormous mistake was made. We may have thought/concluded/assumed/presumed that God has joined these two together, but we were wrong."

Michie · Jan 8, 2025

fide said:
I answered you:
"I grieve that the whole process appears and sounds so legalistic, almost bureaucratic. There can be an admission by the Church that an enormous mistake was made. We may have thought/concluded/assumed/presumed that God has joined these two together, but we were wrong."

Explain it to me like I’m 5 years old. Isn’t that what an annulment is? Deception plays a huge role too. How can the Church know a spouse is going to abuse the other and the children, etc? I guess what I’m not understanding is if you think the annulment process is too legalistic/difficult? Or that the Church takes no responsibility for going ahead with a marriage they never should of approved of in the first place?

fide · Jan 9, 2025

Michie said:
Explain it to me like I’m 5 years old. Isn’t that what an annulment is? Deception plays a huge role too. How can the Church know a spouse is going to abuse the other and the children, etc? I guess what I’m not understanding is if you think the annulment process is too legalistic/difficult? Or that the Church takes no responsibility for going ahead with a marriage they never should of approved of in the first place?

In a sense that is what an annulment is. The Church is saying what happened was not a true marriage. I don't like the term, because it is an admission that the ceremony was not what it appeared to be, but the Church did it. I don't like the fact that marriages are far too easily entered into, and the holy liturgies performed, especially in this godless culture, and especially considering the poor level of adult formation we offer, and most especially considering the fact that the sacramental nature of a Catholic marriage, widely is not appreciated or understood in the Church. The Church acknowledges chronological age as a factor in a potential marriage, but not spiritual age. This is not easily corrected! But it ought to be at least acknowledged, and seriously addressed.

Does that help explain what I am trying to say? The "annulment problem" is the Church's fault, and I see no serious attempt to correct it. The annulment process is a great burden that the Church lays upon (often) the back of the one faithful person in the failed and broken "marriage", whereupon "judges" in the Church decide whether to "grant" the "annulment." May God help us, and have mercy on us. The Lord deserves much better from the shepherds of His own.

Michie · Jan 9, 2025

fide said:
In a sense that is what an annulment is. The Church is saying what happened was not a true marriage. I don't like the term, because it is an admission that the ceremony was not what it appeared to be, but the Church did it. I don't like the fact that marriages are far too easily entered into, and the holy liturgies performed, especially in this godless culture, and especially considering the poor level of adult formation we offer, and most especially considering the fact that the sacramental nature of a Catholic marriage, widely is not appreciated or understood in the Church. The Church acknowledges chronological age as a factor in a potential marriage, but not spiritual age. This is not easily corrected! But it ought to be at least acknowledged, and seriously addressed.

Does that help explain what I am trying to say? The "annulment problem" is the Church's fault, and I see no serious attempt to correct it. The annulment process is a great burden that the Church lays upon (often) the back of the one faithful person in the failed and broken "marriage", whereupon "judges" in the Church decide whether to "grant" the "annulment." May God help us, and have mercy on us. The Lord deserves much better from the shepherds of His own.

Yes that is much more clear. Thank you!

Valletta · Feb 3, 2025

fide said:
First, I'm sorry for the mistype of Mt 9:6 when I meant to type 19:6, which I've now corrected. In the passage Jesus is clear, no "putting away" one's woman [here the Greek word can be either "wife" or simply "woman"] except for "porneia" [the Greek word for sexual sin such as adultery or fornication, and figuratively - symbolically - idolatry - religious/spiritual harlotry with a pagan "god" or idol].

"Annulment" - because of the religious/spiritual significance of the holy state of marriage, as Paul clarifies in Eph. 5 - is a term created admitting a mistake - an apostasy - a falsity against a sacrament, Matrimony. It is as if a member of His Holy Bride turned to paganism: apostasy, or as if the "Christian" man rejected Christ and betrayed His Holy Bride, the Church. So what appeared to be a marriage was not; God had not joined them, what appeared to be a sacrament was a simulation, not true.

I grieve that the whole process appears and sounds so legalistic, almost bureaucratic. There can be an admission by the Church that an enormous mistake was made. We may have thought/concluded/assumed/presumed that God has joined these two together, but we were wrong.

IMHO.

It's not always an enormous mistake needing an admission by the Church. For example, say that two Protestants meet each other on a drinking binge and get married the same day in Las Vegas. They get civilly divorced and one later wants to marry a Catholic. Thus the annulment process begins. Out of respect for other religions and the sacrament, the Catholic Church approaches the marriage with a presumption of validity even though it seems obvious the marriage will be annulled.

fide · Feb 4, 2025

Valletta said:
It's not always an enormous mistake needing an admission by the Church. For example, say that two Protestants meet each other on a drinking binge and get married the same day in Las Vegas. They get civilly divorced and one later wants to marry a Catholic. Thus the annulment process begins. Out of respect for other religions and the sacrament, the Catholic Church approaches the marriage with a presumption of validity even though it seems obvious the marriage will be annulled.

It sounds like we're in agreement about the "mistake" part of what I called an "enormous mistake". The Church alleges a "presumption of validity", even though "it seems obvious" not to be so. I used the word not because "enormous" refers to the size of this mistake, but the size of the presumption on the part of the Church, in the state of the world and the Church today. This is the teaching of the Church concerning the Natural Moral Law (from the universal Catechism):

I. THE NATURAL MORAL LAW
1954 -- Man participates in the wisdom and goodness of the Creator who gives him mastery over his acts and the ability to govern himself with a view to the true and the good. The natural law expresses the original moral sense which enables man to discern by reason the good and the evil, the truth and the lie:
The natural law is written and engraved in the soul of each and every man, because it is human reason ordaining him to do good and forbidding him to sin . . . But this command of human reason would not have the force of law if it were not the voice and interpreter of a higher reason to which our spirit and our freedom must be submitted. [Leo XIII, Libertas praestantissimum, 597]

1955 The “divine and natural” law [GS 89 # 1] shows man the way to follow so as to practice the good and attain his end. The natural law states the first and essential precepts which govern the moral life. It hinges upon the desire for God and submission to him, who is the source and judge of all that is good, as well as upon the sense that the other is one’s equal. Its principal precepts are expressed in the Decalogue. This law is called “natural,” not in reference to the nature of irrational beings, but because reason which decrees it properly belongs to human nature:
Where then are these rules written, if not in the book of that light we call the truth? In it is written every just law; from it the law passes into the heart of the man who does justice, not that it migrates into it, but that it places its imprint on it, like a seal on a ring that passes onto wax, without leaving the ring. [St. Augustine, De Trin. 14, 15, 21: PL 42,1052]

Note this last paragraph, at the end of the section: the Catechism prudently concludes with this (emphasis added by me):

1960 The precepts of natural law are not perceived by everyone clearly and immediately. In the present situation sinful man needs grace and revelation so moral and religious truths may be known “by everyone with facility, with firm certainty and with no admixture of error.” [Pius XII, Humani generis: DS 3876; cf. Dei Filius 2: DS 3005] The natural law provides revealed law and grace with a foundation prepared by God and in accordance with the work of the Spirit.

Scripture prepares us for a time, at the closing of this creation, for the horrific times when lies and deception manifest themselves across the world (again, emphasis added by me):

2 Thess 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.
2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming.
2:9 The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders,
2:10 and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
2:11 Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false,
2:12 so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

RileyG · Feb 4, 2025

Michie said:
Do you believe there are valid reasons for annulment?

In my opinion, yes.

Is There a Scriptural Basis for Annulments?

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