by Father W. Becket Soule, OP (Used with permission)
[To go back to Part 1]

It should be underscored at this point, however, that for the most part, ecclesiastical declarations of nullity have no civil effects in the United States (and, indeed, in most countries of the world). Thus, an annulment never affects the legitimacy of the children born of the union (this is so according to both civil law and canon law); an annulment will not claim to affect either the distribution of property nor the award of the custody of the children.

Nevertheless, the union that existed between the parties created very real moral and legal obligations toward the other party and any children born. There would be serious moral guilt if these obligations were ignored. If a person seeks to remarry after a decree of nullity, the Church insists on the fulfillment of obvious moral and legal obligations, and will not allow a new marriage to take place in the Church unless those obligations were being fulfilled up to that time. If there were doubts concerning the future, the Church would insist on a solemn written promise in this regard from both parties to the new marriage. This element has to enter in because otherwise the Church could become a party to the immoral ignoring of serious obligations by allowing a new wedding to be celebrated in the Church while the obligations to the former union were being ignored.

The divorce percentage rate in the United States has dropped from 48 percent in 1992 to 40 percent in 2000. Not every marriage that ends in divorce was null at its beginning. That is why it is all the more important that the Church provides the opportunity for the investigation of marriages, where this is requested by either of the parties, to see if a decree of nullity can be issued. In a society where two out of every five marriages end in divorce, the increase in the number of annulments surely must come as no surprise; it is only by carefully investigating each petition that the Church can with sure conviction maintain that true marriage is a firm and lifelong commitment between two people.

As an aside, it is important to note that those Catholics who remarry after divorce, without obtaining a declaration of nullity, are not automatically excommunicated. While they are living in a state that is in contradiction to the teaching of the Church on marriage and are thus in manifest grave sin, they do not incur the penal sanction of excommunication for this reason. This was the case in the United States until 1977. The penalty of excommunication was imposed exclusively within the United States by an ecclesiastical council in 1884. However, since the revision of the procedures for annulments and the promulgation of the two new codes of canon law, no one is any longer subject to such a penalty. Because a person divorced and remarried without a declaration of nullity for the prior union cannot be considered to be living in a state of life that mirrors the union between Christ and the Church which is signified by the Eucharist, such a person is not permitted to receive Holy Communion until their marital status is resolved. This is, however, not the result of the public imposition or declaration of an ecclesiastical penalty, but rather the result and consequence of the person’s public circumstances and behavior.