Annulment

Annulment

"Till death do us part". We often hear these seemingly simple words in weddings and yet what does this really mean? Nowadays, annulment has been one of the most prevalent cases here in the Philippines. It has been one of the leading family cases in the country regardless of age, gender and social status. Many people enter marriage without thinking much of the consequences. It can be seen also how celebrities, especially, change spouses as if merely changing stained clothing.

Marriage is the means by which the family is introduced into the society. Since the continued development of the society depends on the family, it is obviously the unit of society. However, despite the fact that precautions are taken, marriage can still be contracted unwisely and in haste. Consequently, it has been said that some individuals are not properly married because they were not eligible to marry, and therefore, no true marriage occurred. An annulment is then petitioned asking the court to enter a ruling that the marriage never existed, and was void from the beginning. The parties are then no longer married, and may act as if they were never married.

According to Church Law, to know what the circumstances forbid the celebration of marriage under pain of nullity and/or render it invalid right from the start despite its factual celebration, is not only mandatory for those in the ordained Ministry, but also particularly advantageous for the ordinary Christian as a null and void marriage should be altogether avoided or decidedly resolved because of its socio-moral and emotio-spiritual consequences as well as its canonical and/or civil implications on the parties concerned.

The validity of marriage, in-line with Catholic teaching, rests on three basic factors, a defect in any of which renders the canonical marriage null and void. These three essential elements are the (1) Legal Capacity to Marry, (2) Integrality of Matrimonial Consent and (3) Observance of the Canonical Form.

The legal capacity to marry simply means freedom from any and all matrimonial diriment impediments such as age, impotence, pre-existing bond, disparity of cult, sacred orders, the vow of chastity, abduction, crime, consanguinity, affinity, public propriety and legal relationship. Integrality of Marital Consent, on the other hand, refers to a free, true and deliberate option for marriage. Ignorance, error, misconception, fraud, simulation, condition, force or fear, proxy marriage and consensual incapacity due to the lack of sufficient use of reason, grave lack of due discretion and/or the inability to assume obligations, are under this category. Finally, the Observance of the Canonical Form signifies attention to and the fulfillment of the constitutive procedure as stipulated by Church Law wherein marriage between a man and a woman is valid only in the assisting presence of the Local Ordinary or the Parish Priest, or a Priest or a Deacon delegated by either of the said Local Ordinary or Parish Priest, and in the attesting presence of at least two witnesses. Marriage under these circumstances and/or with the said factors precisely undermines or subverts marriage itself in the order if nature and/or the sphere of grace on account of their very essences and consequence.

Many and varied are the grounds put forward for annulment, some arising from the wickedness and the guilt of the persons concerned, others arising from the circumstances of the case; in a word, whatever might make married life hard or unpleasant. Thus, in the first place, it is for the good of either party that the one who is innocent should have the right to separate from the guilty, or that the guilty should be withdrawn from a union that is unpleasing to and against his will.

Second, it has been argued that the good of the child demands this, for either it will be deprived of a proper education or the natural fruits of it, and will too easily be affected by the discords and shortcomings of the parents and drawn from the path of virtue.

Finally, the common good of society requires that these marriages, which are now incapable of producing their natural results, be declared null and that legal reparations should be allowed when crimes are to be feared as a result of the union and intercourse of the parties. This, they say, must be admitted to avoid the crimes being committed purposely with a view to obtaining the desired sentence of an annulment for which the marriage can be considered null and void. Each of these reasons is considered conclusive, so that all taken together offer a clear proof of the necessity of granting annulment.

However, I believe that this encourages couples to invent bogus grounds to justify annulment. Also, people who believe their marriage is valid are often not given proper representation and are often branded as troublemakers. This approach not only scorns the judicial process, it also attacks the very institution of marriage.

The marriage of a man and woman is "unique," and something to be "praised and treasured." Marriage should be treated as "both a vocation and a sacrament, the celebration of the sacred commitment...between a man and a woman, which is at the heart of family life as it is... the central locus of responsibility for the rearing and education... of each new generation of citizens." This has been a recurring theme in the Roman Catholic teaching and yet it's handing out annulments by the thousands.

Because of this, the sacredness of the sacrament of matrimony is taken for granted. With the increasing number of annulment cases, more and more people are being introduced and becoming attached to the idea that a marriage can easily be annulled as long as one finds a loophole to declare the marriage invalid. Worse, it is rapidly becoming or has become a norm in society with personalities having undergone more than one marriage being at the forefront of media.

It distorts the concept of a family as more and more annulled marriages result to new relationships and eventually new marriages. This influences the views of many regarding marriage and the upbringing of children is affected as well. Annulled marriages influence the values and personalities of the children involved. They wouldn't grow up in a normal family setting and might have some difficulties coping with the loss of a parent in their lives. I think this would be a significant factor in their development as persons and that they might experience the same fate when they grow up.

A significant idea that the Family Code established as a ground for annulment was the now much abused "psychological incapacity" to go through marriage. Given that the