Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise VIII. On Matrimony › Dissertation II. On Matrimony Itself › Appendix I. On Invalid Marriage

Part — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Part I. On the Declaration of the Nullity of an Invalid Marriage

828.

I. One must regularly proceed to the declaration of the nullity of an invalid marriage: 1° if convalidation cannot have place, because the impediment cannot be removed; 2° if, all things considered, it is better for the parties to be separated.

II. The competent judge in this cause is the judge of the place in which the marriage was celebrated, or in which the respondent party, or, if one is non-Catholic, the Catholic party, has a domicile or quasi-domicile (canon 1964). Nevertheless, recourse can also be had to the Holy See.

  1. The tribunal to be constituted by the Ordinary consists of three judges (canon 1576, § 1), to whom are added the "defender of the bond," as it is called, and an actuary.

  2. The tribunal must proceed collegially and render sentence by the greater part of the votes (canon 1577, § 1).

  3. If sentence is rendered for the nullity of the marriage, appeal should be made to a higher tribunal, different according to the circumstances (canon 1986; compare canon 1594, §§ 1 and 2).1

  4. After the second sentence, which has confirmed the nullity of the marriage, if the defender of the bond in the grade of appeal has not believed according to his conscience that appeal should be made, the spouses have the right, ten days having elapsed from the notification of the sentence, of contracting new nuptials (canon 1987).

  5. Canon 1990 establishes when the solemnities enumerated can be omitted: "When from a certain and authentic document, which is subject to no contradiction or exception, there has been established the existence of an impediment of disparity of worship, order, solemn vow of chastity, bond, consanguinity, affinity, or spiritual relationship, and at the same time with equal certainty it has appeared that a dispensation over these impediments was not given, in these cases, the solemnities enumerated up to this point having been passed over, the Ordinary, the parties having been cited, will be able to declare the nullity of the marriage, with the intervention, however, of the defender of the bond." Nevertheless, canons 1991 and 1992 should be consulted.

  6. A marriage between two Catholics or between a Catholic party and a non-Catholic party, contracted either merely civilly or by a non-Catholic rite, can be declared null by the Ordinary, or by the pastor after the Ordinary has been consulted, after only the investigation of which canon 1019 sq. treats has first been made.2

1 Appeal can also be made to the Sacred Rota (canon 1599, § 1, 1°).

2 Pontifical Commission, October 16, 1919, to 17 (A.A.S. 1919, p. 479); March 23, 1919 (Archiv fuer katholisches Kirchenrecht 1919, p. 64).

Declaration of Nullity