Does the Bible support the Catholic practice of a marriage annulment?

Question: "Does the Bible support the Catholic practice of a marriage annulment?"

Answer: Within the Catholic Church, the seven sacraments of Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation, Anointing of the Sick, Reconciliation (Penance), Matrimony, and Holy Orders are considered the outward showing of inner grace, instituted by Christ. They are the very components of salvation as the Roman Catholic Church teaches it. The Catholic Encyclopedia states it thusly:

"Almighty God can and does give grace to men in answer to their internal aspirations and prayers without the use of any external sign or ceremony. This will always be possible, because God, grace, and the soul are spiritual beings. God is not restricted to the use of material, visible symbols in dealing with men; the sacraments are not necessary in the sense that they could not have been dispensed with. But, if it is known that God has appointed external, visible ceremonies as the means by which certain graces are to be conferred on men, then in order to obtain those graces it will be necessary for men to make use of those Divinely appointed means.... The Council of Trent (Sess. VII, can. 4) declared heretical those who assert that the sacraments of the New Law are superfluous and not necessary, although all are not necessary for each individual. It is the teaching of the Catholic Church and of Christians in general that, whilst God was nowise bound to make use of external ceremonies as symbols of things spiritual and sacred, it has pleased Him to do so, and this is the ordinary and most suitable manner of dealing with men."

The Catholic Church teaches that the sacraments themselves, the foundation of salvation, cannot be tossed aside easily. Only if the sacrament was not lawful from the moment it was conferred can it be renounced. In recognition of the fact that that may happen from time to time, the Catholic Church has created the annulment process, which will declare a sacrament invalid from the very beginning.

An annulment is properly referred to as a Declaration of Nullity. Though it can be applied to any of the seven sacraments, it is most often sought for Matrimony. Since the Catholic Church holds that a married couple cannot divorce for any reason whatsoever, a divorce is not recognized by the Catholic Church as a valid end to a marriage. It then follows that a Catholic priest will not marry those individuals who were divorced, even if the divorce occurred prior to accepting Christ or joining the Catholic Church, even if the divorce occurred before the divorcee truly understood the spiritual and temporal consequences.

When issued, an annulment does not end the effects conferred by the sacrament. The annulment declares that the sacrament in question was not valid from the start, and the recipient is treated as though he or she never actually received the sacrament. That does not mean that children from the marriage are now considered born out of wedlock, or that the ex-spouses committed any sort of fornication. It means that the receipt of the sacrament was somehow flawed. An annulment works like a military court. Three priest-judges (called a tribunal) hear the case, and render a decision. The complainant, usually with a priest or lay advocate, presents the case against the validity of the marriage. The defender of the bond, a court officer, presents the evidence that the marriage was legal. Usually, this takes place in the complainant's diocese or in the diocese where the marriage took place. A second tribunal in another diocese must also hear the case and decide it. Two concurring affirmative decisions must occur before the annulment is granted. The Roman Rota, the highest ecclesiastical court, will hear the case if the two diocese tribunals split. Their decision is final. An unfavorable final outcome can also be appealed to the Roman Rota.

Annulments are granted for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons presented to tribunals are a lack of due discretion, defective consent, and psychological incapacity. Some annulments are for minor technicalities, and rarely involve more than filling out the correct forms. For example, if one of the parties had a prior bond (was married in the Catholic sense of the word) at the time of the wedding. There is also defect of form, which includes marriages performed by a non-Catholic minister, or weddings held outside of a Catholic Church. More than half of all the annulments granted are for defect of form.

Annulments granted for lack of due discretion are given in cases when the complainant hastily chose marriage when this would not have been the best option. Such as a woman who found herself pregnant and rushed to the altar, only to find out her husband didn't take care of his family. Defective consent includes cases where a party to the marriage said "I do" to a complete lie. That is, one of the entrants to the marriage presented a false picture of him- or herself. The annulment is granted if the deception is substantial enough to amount to a serious fraud.

Finally, an annulment may be granted for psychological incapacity, in the case of a mentally-challenged individual or a minor. It is impossible for a person to promise to do something that he or she is not capable of doing. The Roman Rota has traditionally upheld that people who are mentally handicapped, or those diagnosed with certain neuroses, psychoses, or with paranoid schizophrenia, are not capable of living up to the conditions of a canon marriage.

With the Catholic concept of annulment in mind, is such a concept Biblical? In regards to marriage being a sacrament, please read our article on the seven Catholic sacraments. The Roman Catholic concept of marriage as a sacrament is itself unbiblical. This puts the concept of an annulment on shaky ground to begin with. What does the Bible say about marriage and divorce? Jesus told His followers "I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery" (Matthew 5:32). Matthew also tells us that Jesus admonished the Pharisees by saying, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.... And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery" (19:4-6,9). Mark concurs, writing "But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate" (10:6-9). Finally, in the Gospel of Luke is found: "Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery" (16:18).

Catholic doctrine is based upon both Scripture and Church tradition. Based upon Jesus' words, "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate" (Matthew 19:6, Mark 10:9), and upon the Church tradition that receiving a sacrament creates an undeletable mark upon the soul of the recipient, the Church teaches that a marriage CANNOT end. The Church does not ignore Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 that allow divorce in the case of adultery of the other party. No, the way this is handled is much more disturbing. According to the New American Bible (NAB), a Catholic Bible translation, Matthew 5:32 and 19:9 read thus: "whoever divorces his wife (UNLESS THE MARRIAGE IS UNLAWFUL) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery [emphasis added]." The concept of an "unlawful marriage" in the NAB is translated as either "(marital) unfaithfulness," "adultery," or "fornication" in the every other major Bible translation. There does not seem to be any textual basis for the NAB's choice of words, except to support the Catholic Church's own doctrine.

Although Jesus taught that divorce was only written into the Law because of human stubbornness (Matthew 19:8), and that the original intent of God was for the spouses to never separate (Genesis 2:24), He makes the exception in cases of adultery. The Catholic Church's teaching of marriage doesn't ignore this fact; it mistranslates Scripture to support its own unbiblical teaching of marriage as unending, and then creates the annulment process to allow a Catholic-sanctioned way to end said marriage by declaring it as never having been valid. The annulment process is unbiblical in the sense that Jesus only allowed for adultery as the basis for ending a marriage, and the annulment process allows for many, many reasons, but not for the one reason Jesus mentioned. The Catholic Church does not accept the only biblical reason for divorce as valid, and in fact creates a new list of unbiblical reasons for a marriage to end.

The Roman Catholic Church’s practice of annulment is not Biblical. It is founded on an unbiblical concept, that of the sacraments conferring grace. It is essentially an “escape” from what the Bible defines as a marriage. It ignores what the Bible does say about marriage, divorce, and adultery. Essentially, the Catholic practice of marriage annulment is an unbiblical way to escape from a doctrine that is itself unbiblical.

Recommended Resource: The Gospel According to Rome: Comparing Catholic Tradition and The Word of God by James McCarthy.