Im not Catholic can I get an anulment??

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I am not catholic, but i was married catholic because it is my ex wifes religion. She left me after deciding she didnt want to have children anymore. Can I have this marriage anulled?? I was told that changing your mind about children was grounds for an anullment. I would appreciate any advice. Thank You

-- Steve (Steveo1275@aol.com), January 27, 2003

Answers

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Steve, please excuse my asking, but if you're not a Catholic, why do you need an annulment? Are you planning to marry another Catholic? If not, I don't think you really need to worry about it. :-)

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), January 29, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Christine, you are speaking about something you don't understand at all here. Do you suppose that a marriage of a non catholic couple is not valid in the eyes of our church? That it is a joke because they are not catholic? Then know that a marriage is undissoluble by its own nature before it is undissoluble by the church law! A hindu couple married in their church or even in a civil ceremony is united in an indissoluble marriage (from our point of view!) even if not sacramental in the sense of our church!

-- (marios85ten@hotmail.com), January 29, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Steve, once again - go to your local pastor (even if you are not catholic) and tell him your story. He can do more than anyone here. He'll need more facts than those posted.

-- (marios85ten@hotmail.com), January 29, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Mario,

What Christine was asking was why would a NON-Catholic be concerned if the marriage was annulled or not. They obviously can get divorced. What does (to him) the annullment matter?

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), January 29, 2003.


Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Mario, I was not intending to be insulting. I think it's a legitimate question. If he's a non-Catholic and doesn't plan to convert, and isn't trying to marry a Catholic, I don't see that an annulment would be necessary.

Now, if his ex-wife, who IS a Catholic, wants the annulment, that's another story.

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), January 29, 2003.



Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

A non catholic can be concerned about the validity of his marriage because he too has conscience and that conscience matters to him as much as it does to some catholics, believe it or not. If you heard what Steve says you would feel it. The annullment is not at all obvious! Frank, you clearly speak about things you don't understand. Steve, speaking to your pastor can be in fact less unpleasent than getting answers from this forum!

-- (marios85ten@hotmail.com), January 30, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Mario, lemme 'splain this so you can understand, okay?

A non-Catholic who does not intend to practice the Catholic religion or marry a Catholic would not in any way be obligated to have the Catholic Church pronounce on the validity, legality or sacramentality of his marriage. He would only be obligated to do so if he were planning to remarry WITHIN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

-- Christine L. :-) (christine_lehman@hotmail.com), February 03, 2003.


Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Okay, maybe I just fell off the little bus, Maybe someone can help me. I have a friend who got married while he was in the penitentary and he is still there. Now he wants an anullment to declare this marriage void on the grounds that the marriage was never consumated. His wife lied to him about several things including the fact that she didn't tell him that she had genital herpes until after they were married. Now, please explain this, is an anullment only for people of the Catholic faith or can it be for people who are not Catholic? I really thought that this can be done legally such as a divorce. If so would his wife have to sign papers to make it valid. She said she will refuse to sign any papers he has sent to her...

-- Sharon K. Johnson (s1grinch@swbell.net), February 08, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

An Anullment may be preferred in some cases regardless of religion because of certain legal issues. An annulment "nullifies" the marriage, making it as though it never existed. This is desired in many instances after a very short marriage occured, where no division of marital assets was in order. A divorce would create the need to divy up property, etc.

-- Paul Michaels (PMO12@aol.com), March 30, 2003.

Response to Im not Catholic can i get an anullment??

Dear Paul,

What you seem to be referring to here is civil decree of nullity regrding a legal contract, which can apply to civil marriage contracts in some circumstances. A decree of nullity issued by the Church, unlike a civil nullification, does not "nullify" anything, or make any actual change in what already exists. Rather, it is simply a statement that the marriage was invalid from its inception. In other words, it never did exist. This has no legal ramifications since it is a Church matter, not recognized by the state.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), March 30, 2003.



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