Morals of the Church
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Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Section I. On the Dissolution of Marriage Between Baptized Persons, Not Consummated

838.

I. Reasons for petitioning the dissolution of marriage between baptized persons, not consummated, are, for example: doubtful impotence, or impotence doubtfully antecedent or doubtfully perpetual and difficultly curable; supervening impotence; infirmity impeding the use of marriage; grave error concerning a quality of the person, detected after marriage; grave and continual discords between the parties; an infamous delict perpetrated by one party, especially if a sentence of a judge followed; danger of perversion; civil divorce, especially with celebration of a new civil marriage; probable nullity of the marriage, but which cannot be sufficiently proved, for instance on account of fear applied, on account of a condition added to the consent; malicious departure.1

II. The mode of obtaining dissolution is presented summarily in these points:2

  1. Only the spouses have the right of petitioning for a dispensation over a ratified and non-consummated marriage (canon 1973).

  2. The petition to be directed to the Supreme Pontiff should be transmitted to the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments; moreover, it should be directed through one's own Ordinary.

  3. The Ordinary cannot instruct the process unless the Apostolic See has given him the faculty (canon 1963, § 1).

  4. The Ordinary will take care to constitute the tribunal as soon as he can, employing for this purpose the ministers constituted in his Curia, or also others. A collegiate tribunal of three judges is not required; however, an instructing judge, a defender of the bond, and an actuary are required.

  5. The tribunal should especially inquire: 1° into the legitimate causes of dispensation; 2° into the non-consummation of the marriage.

  6. When the process has been finished, all the acts together with the vote of the Bishop and of the defender of the bond are to be transmitted to the Congregation, and the sentence of the Supreme Pontiff himself is to be awaited.

1 De Smet, op. cit., n. 330; Vlaming, op. cit., II, n. 606.

2 The Decree of the Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments, May 7, 1923, established the rules to be observed (A.A.S. 1923, pp. 389-436).

Unity and indissolubility of marriageThe Dissolution of Marriage Between Baptized Persons, Not ConsummatedDivorce