divorce according to the catholic church, what if if only one partner is wanting it?

Answer 1

lot of people giving advice on this on don't know what they are talking about.

Catholic Divorce is effectively annulment.

Annulment means that the marriage was a mistake and should not have occurred and therefore is not deemed valid (not this does not mean you children are bastards).

It doesn't matter if one person doesn't want it, it will still happen if you ask for it and follow the procedure.

There is a process which can include witnesses etc, but it almost never turns into a courtroom type of thing. Call you local Archdiocese and get the process started. If will probably take about 1 year.

Answer 2

The only divorce that exists in the Catholic Church falls under two conditions. First is non-consumation of marriage which means the husband and wife did not have sex from the beginning of the marriage up to such time that they decided to have the marriage dissolved. The other condition is called the Pauline privilege which means that if a non-Catholic, non-Christian couple is married outside the Catholic church, and one of the parties converts to Catholicism and the other has no intention of converting and neither wish to continue with the marriage, the convert can apply for a Pauline privilege (named after St. Paul) to have the non-Catholic marriage dissolved.
If a Catholic couple applies for divorce according to state laws, the Church does not recognize the divorce and the divorcee cannot remarry in the Catholic Church.
Probably the most famous case of divorce was between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Since it was only Henry VIII who wanted the divorce and since it was not honored by the church, Catherine, a devout Catholic, opted to stay in London, so she could still be considered sharing board (home) with her husband.
Another form of marriage dissolusion in the Catholic Church is annulment. This means that the marriage is to be declared null and void or that it didn't exists in the first place because requirements were not met. There are only three grounds for annulment in the the Catholic Church: age, impotence and consent. The age ground means that both parties must be of legal age (depending on the the diocese). The second ground is impotence which means that the male party cannot perform the marital act because he is physiologically unable to have an erection. Consent means that the intention to get married was given freely and willfully by both parties. This is were the gray area usually occurs. Consent could be subject to mental and psychological incapacity.
So annulment can only be obtained if the parties are underage or the male is impotent or if either of the parties' consent is defective.

Answer 3

Anyone can get a divorce, even if they are Catholics ... but they can NOT MARRY and continue to be a communicant without a 'church annulment.' ONE partner can go through this annulment process, although the court will want to question that woman's partner about why the marriage took place and what caused the couple to get a divorce. In the Catholic church, things like mental illness or a misunderstanding of the meaning of a real marriage (an 'open marriage' is not considered a real marriage, since both partners are free to have sex outside of that marriage), or abuse are necessary.

Answer 4

There's no such thing as divorce in a catholic church. You can have your catholic marriage annulled but there's no divorce in that church. If only one wants the divorce, it will be a long hard climb up and down the emotional roller coaster of the process which is why most don't file for divorce, just legal separation or live separately without any legal sanctions.

Answer 5

Talk to your priest about annulment - and read up about it on line. You can still get one if only one person wants it but you will have to fill out the paperwork and it takes about a year. It does not mean your marriage didn't exist in the legal sense or that your children are illegitimate - in the Catholic church it means they recognize you did not have the requisite commitment to be married for life. Getting an annulment through the Catholic church would allow you to marry in the church again.

The divorce itself still goes by whatever your state law is and I believe you need to be divorced before you can apply for a Catholic divorce "annulment"

Answer 6

It all depends on the state. In some states divorce is granted without signatures on the decree and it does happen because one spouse wanted it and the other didn't. What's wild is that the divorce is granted through the courts legally but the CC church still wants to annul it. Insane!

Answer 7

Doesn't work unless both agree. My wife's parents got a divorce and her father was a Eucharistic minister and wanted the annulment required by the church for him to stay as the Eucharistic minister. My mother-in-law refused because that would bastardize the kids.

Answer 8

A church doesn't govern the citizens; the law does. If only one person wants the divorce, they get it.

Answer 9

The Church's position is that the couple should fix their marriage, unless one person is in danger. The person in danger can divorce the other spouse for protection. That doesn't necessarily mean that either party can remarry, though.

Answer 10

That is a very common problem and you would have no problem getting an annulment. Good luck.

Oh, and I would ask the spouse who wants the divorce to pay for the annulment, they cost about $2000!