This is a common question asked by a great many people. Often times they have heard that they might not need an annulment for various reasons (e.g., their prior wedding was outside the Catholic Church, it wasn’t a Christian wedding, it was done in a courthouse, one or both partners were not Catholics). Unfortunately, what they have heard is often incorrect.
Here is a simple list of questions to ask to determine whether an annulment is needed:
1) Does the person wish to get married or to possibly marry in the future?
2) Has the person attempted marriage before (meaning: has the person ever had anything that someone would regard as a wedding ceremony)?
3) Is the prior spouse still alive?
4) Is it the case that the Catholic Church has not yet investigated the marriage and found it to be null?
If the answer to all four of these questions is “yes” then the person needs an annulment.
These questions should be asked both for Catholics and non-Catholics, and they should be asked for each prior marriage the person has attempted.
The reasons that you sometimes hear suggested for why a person may not need an annulment do not actually mean that the person doesn’t need an annulment. More often, they are indicators that it will be easy to show that the marriage was null. For example, if a Catholic married outside the Church without a dispensation then the marriage was automatically null, and this will be easy to show when the annulment is sought. However, the annulment is still necessary.
In order to be faithful to Christ’s teachings on matrimony (Mark 10:2-12, see also Romans 7:2-3), the Church has a pastoral duty to investigate it whenever a person has attempted marriage and make sure that the person really is free to marry before giving that person permission to marry again. This investigation is commonly called the annulment process. It may be easy or hard to show nullity in a particular case, but the Church has a responsibility to Christ to investigate the matter.
The way to get the annulment process started is to call a local parish, explain that you would like to seek an annulment, and they can help you from there.
NOTE: There is one class of exception to the above. There are a few cases in which it is possible for a marriage to be dissolved. The most common such case is when two unbaptized people marry and then later one of them is baptized and the non-baptized partner will not continue living with the baptized partner (1 Cor. 7:12-15). However, even in cases such as this, where dissolution is technically possible, annulment is still generally the best way of handling the case. If you think such a case may apply in your situation, contact the marriage tribunal at your local Catholic diocese for further guidance.
