I will state upfront that I am an Anabaptist. But that in and of itself is not why I am asking the question. I am divorced, my faith and reading of scripture tells me that remarriage is sin if the "ex" is still living. In a conversation today on the matter I mentioned to someone that this is one reason that the church cannot perform a divorce, only a marriage. A "writing of divorce" can only be obtained from the state. Someone then told me that the Catholic church can nullify a marriage. So I guess I have two questions:
1) Is this so?
2) If so, what is the scriptural basis of this?
I am not asking this as a veiled attack. Rather I had never heard of this before and was curious as to the Catholic position. Thank you.
2007-07-29 17:17:16 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Pastor Art: What do you make of Mark 10:1-12 specificaly verses 11 and 12?
Imacatholic and all those Catholics who answered: Thank you
2007-07-29 17:47:58 · update #1
No, the Catholic Church does not nullify a marriage.
The Catholic Church believes that God does not recognize civil divorces.
Jesus said, "Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate." (Mark 10:9)
However there may be hope of a declaration of nullity.
The term "annulment" is a misnomer because the Church does not undo or erase a marriage bond.
Rather the Church issues a declaration of nullity when it discovers that the parties were not truly joined by God and hence a full spiritual sacramental marriage as understood by the Church was never present.
Then the parties are free to marry for the first time.
With love in Christ.
2007-07-29 17:30:24 · answer #1 · answered by imacatholic2 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
You can get an annullment from the catholic church- and you need one to remarry if your ex is still alive. I'm not sure what the scriptural basis is, but it's not the same as divorce. The idea is that the marriage was, for some reason, invalid to begin with, and therefore wasn't a real marriage.
What's interesting is that many states in the US have similar laws. In MN, for example, if you find out after marrying that your spouse is infertile, you can have your marriage annulled by the state- without even going through a proper divorce procedure. It's a very archaic kind of discrimination, if you ask me.
2007-07-30 00:24:04 · answer #2 · answered by dscougar 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
No, the Church cannot "nullify a marriage". The Church can examine a putative marriage, to determine whether all the requirements for validity existed at the time this marriage occurred. If they were present, then the marriage was and is valid, and no authority on earth can change that, except the death of one of the parties. But if the marriage trubunal discovers a serious deficit that would have resulted in an invalid union, then a writ of nullity may be issued. This does not change anything. It does not nullify anything. It is simply an official statement to the effect that the essential requirements for a valid Christian marriage were not present at the time of the wedding, and that the putative marriage was therefore null from the beginning.
2007-07-30 00:45:06 · answer #3 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes, the Catholic church can annul a marriage. What generally occurs is that the couple goes into counseling with a priest, and he determines whether or not the relationship can be rekindled. If it is apparent that the two were never meant to be together, it can be said that the Lord never blessed the marriage to begin with, and therefore the marriage was not sacred to begin with. So in a sense, it is a spiritual divorce, but it is more declaring that the marriage was not valid from the start -- therefore, it does not contradict scripture.
2007-07-30 00:24:40 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
1) It is true that the Catholic Church will annul a marriage.
2) As far as I know, there is no scriptural basis. I think Jesus only said, "do not divorce".
I am Catholic but I certainly don't have encyclopedic knowledge of the Bible or Canon Law. I can't tell you the basis of annulments. I stick with the "do not divorce" idea.
2007-07-30 00:25:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
>>Is this so?<<
Yes.
>>If so, what is the scriptural basis of this?<<
It is just common sense. For example, there can be no marriage without consent, right? If your parents force you to marry because you are pregnant, you didn't actually consent to marry the guy. This would be one situation in which the Church would find that the marriage wasn't valid.
2007-07-30 00:33:04 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I am a Bible believing Christian, non denominational.
The Bible does not say re-marriage is sin if the ex is still living.
One cannot determine if re-marriage is sin or not without examining why the first marriage failed.
If, for example, your ex was not faithful to you, you are free to divorce your ex and then marry again without sinning.
If you were both Christians and divorced without having a valid reason, then you are told to reconcile with each other or remain unmarried.
Pastor Art
2007-07-30 00:25:14 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋