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Hi, D. —
Well, if an annulment were granted, it would be annulled because, at the
time of the blessing of the marriage,
- he was not mentally competent
to contract marriage, or
- not honest about something, or
- there was some
serious impediment to the sacramental bond.
This would be true, unless the
original marriage was sacramental, between two baptized people with the
full Catholic intention of marriage (children, permanence, and exclusivity)
— in which case, that would be the marriage that needs to be examined by the marriage tribunal.
However, it appears that if they got married again in the Church,
what they originally had, was a natural marriage, which is a true marriage,
but not a sacramental one.
A declaration of nullity does not mean that
there was no marriage in the civil sense, nor does it mean that any of
the children were illegitimate. It means that no sacramental bond of matrimony
was established, which is the only kind of marriage that can exist for
Catholics.
Mary Ann
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