By Jenna Marie Cooper, OSV News
Question: I’ve recently decided to return to my childhood Catholic faith after many years away, and my priest told me I need to get an annulment. When I called the tribunal, they said they needed to contact my ex-husband for this. But I don’t see any need to drag him through this whole process. Does my ex absolutely have to be involved, or is there some way around this?
Answer: The short answer is yes, the marriage tribunal really would need to contact him about your case.
For some background, a declaration of nullity — which is often popularly, but somewhat less accurately, called an “annulment” — is a formal statement from the Catholic Church that a marital union which initially appeared to be valid actually had some sort of defect that prevented a true marriage from ever being contracted in the first place. It has no effect on the legitimacy of children.
If a person’s marriage truly was null, the Church owes him or her official clarity on the marital status as a matter of justice. But at the same time, the Church also needs to uphold and defend our Catholic teachings on the permanence of a valid marriage bond. And so to ensure that the truth of the matter will be discerned accurately and fairly, the Church’s canon law gives us a legal process for ascertaining whether or not a given marriage should be declared null. Since many steps of action and review are required in this Church legal process, it takes some time to advance to the stage of the decision. Tribunals handle annulment petitions from every parish of the diocese as well as deal with many other canon law issues every day.
In a marriage nullity process, the petitioner is the individual who is actively seeking the declaration of nullity. The respondent is the other spouse in the case. Some respondents want the declaration of nullity just as much as the petitioner, sometimes they are indifferent to whatever the Church decides, and some respondents feel that despite their civil divorce their marriage was indeed valid, and that they therefore wish to argue against a declaration of nullity.
The nullity process begins with the petitioner telling the tribunal the story of why the marriage might be invalid, in the form of a written “libellus” (the technical term for a formal petition for a canonical trial investigating the marriage). But in order for the nullity process to go any further, the Church strictly requires that the respondent be “cited.” This means that the respondent is officially informed of the petitioner’s request for a marriage nullity trial, is able to read a copy of the petitioner’s libellus, and is invited to participate and make his or her case in the ensuing trial. (See “Dignitas Connubii,” articles 126-128, for reference.)
There are a few reasons tribunals need to cite the respondent. The first and most foundational reason is as a matter of basic natural justice. That is, marriage is always between two equal parties, and it would be grossly unfair for the Church to declare a marriage invalid “out from under” the other spouse without the chance to tell his or her side of the story.
Practically speaking, when a respondent is willing to participate in the nullity process, this greatly helps the canon lawyer judges in a trial come to a fair and accurate decision, insofar as hearing from the respondent gives the judges a fuller picture of what actually happened. Both the petitioner and respondent have many rights which are upheld such as providing his or her own testimony, providing witnesses to testify, reading all of the information in the case, and appealing the decision.
Finally, as a matter of canon law, if a tribunal fails to cite the respondent properly, this makes the annulment itself invalid. This means that a declaration of nullity granted under such circumstances wouldn’t actually “count” and even that a subsequent marriage in the Church would be invalid (See Canon 1620, subsection 7, of the Code of Canon Law.) That is just how seriously the Church takes the responsibility to follow procedural law and uphold rights and obligations in this trial. If you have questions, contact your priest to learn how to petition for a declaration of nullity.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to CatholicQA@osv.com.