Canonical and Legal Aspects of Marriage

 Why do couples seek for an annulment?

 What are the reasons

 which cause

 their decision?

I vote yes for the legalization of divorce in the Philippines..it would help
wounded couples to have a fresh new start..its very hard to stay/live together
everyday, every moment in one roof with someone with misunderstandings,
irreconcilable differences, hurt, violence, maltreatment, etc.. could you stand
that way? we are human. We have feelings. We have needs. We want to be
treated right..to be loved..to be respected, to be cared...however, in most cases,
people discover new and lasting relationship with other person.

Let divorce give freedom and chance those who are in bondage of failed marriages...I hope that divorce will be
legalized in our country...there are many people that would benefit from it..I would like to address the Catholic
church..TO PLEASE REFRAIN FROM INTERVENING THE GOVERNMENT or any religious group. You can not say
its perfect. stop being idealistic..you do not feel what we feel..just enjoy your gift of celibacy...we are different. your call
is different from us... we also want happy family, just give us another chance...

Replied by: cre | Date replied: Aug 11,2010

I say yes to divorce. Let’s all stop pretending that we are a religious nation and we follow every single thing the
church believes in. we need to be practical. not all couples who wed end up having a happily ever after. good for those
who stay together but for many, people change. everyone deserves a second chance. we keep on saying stay together for
the sake of the kids, if our kids someday end up in a bad marriage, we’ll be the first in line asking for divorce.

ANNULMENT DIVORCE

a legal procedure which cancels a marriage between a is the ending of a valid marriage between a man and a
man and a woman. Annulling a marriage is as though it is woman returning both parties to single status with the
completely erased – legally, it declares that the marriage ability to remarry.
never technically existed and was never valid.

“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So
they are no loner two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

Matthew 19:5-6

Canonical Aspect of Marriage

3 Essential elements for Valid Marriage

1. Legal capacity to marry simply means freedom from any and all matrimonial diriment impediments every
one of which categorically forbids marriage precisely under pain of nullity.

2. Integrality of matrimonial consent in substance refers to free, true and deliberate option for marriage.

3. Observance of the canonical form basically signifies attention to and fulfillment of the constitutive procedure
for the celebration of marriage as stipulated by Church Law.

Annulment

 a formal declaration by the church that a marriage was null and void from the beginning.

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 Three canonical reasons generally given for annulments

invalidating impediment (12 impediments)

defect of human consent (9 factors)

lack of canonical form (7 items)

12 Invalidating 1) Age 7) Abduction

Impediments 2) Impotence 8) Crime

3) Pre-existing bond 9) Consanguinity

4) Disparity of Cult 10) Affinity

5) Sacred Orders 11) Public Propriety

6) Vow of Chastity 12) Legal Relationship

AGE A man cannot validly enter marriage before the completion of his sixteenth year of
age, nor a woman before the completion of her fourteenth year.

Impotence Antecedent and perpetual impotence to have sexual intercourse

Pre-existing Bond A person bound by the bond of a previous marriage, even if not consummated,
invalidly attempts marriage.

Disparity of Cult A marriage is invalid when one of the two persons was baptized in the Catholic
Church or received into it and has not by a formal act defected from it, and the
other was not baptized.

Sacred Orders / Vow of Chastity Those who are in sacred orders invalidly attempt marriage (priest, religious
brother/sister-nun).

Abduction refers to a man who abducts or detains a woman for the purpose of marriage.

CRIME One who, with a view to entering marriage with a particular person, has killed
that person's spouse, or his or her own spouse

Consanguinity  Marriage is invalid between those related by consanguinity in all degrees of

the direct line, whether ascending or descending, legitimate or natural.

 In the collateral line, it is invalid up to the fourth degree inclusive.

Affinity  The parties are related by marriage in a prohibited degree.

 in any degree of the direct line invalidates marriage.

 Spiritual affinity

Public Propriety The impediment of public propriety arises when a couple live together after an
invalid marriage, or from a notorious or public concubinage.

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 It invalidates marriage in the first degree of the direct line between the man and
those related by consanguinity to the woman, and vice versa.

Legal relationship Those who are legally related by reason of adoption cannot validly marry each
other if their relationship is in the direct line or in the second degree of the
collateral line.

Regarding the observance

Invalidity of Matrimonial Consent of canonical form

 Mental Capacity (Psychological Incapacity)  Ministers

 Ignorance  Ordained Official Church witness

 Error  Lay Official Church witness

 Misconception  Common witnesses

 Fraud  Extraordinary form

 Simulation  Binding Force

 Condition  Dispensation

 Force or Fear

 Proxy Marriage

Essential requisites LEGAL ASPECT OF MARRIAGE

1. Legal Capacity

 Male and female

 18 years or more

 If 18-21, with parental consent

 Not incestuous or against Public policy

2. Consent Freely Given

· Knowingly done, Not through fraud, force, intimidation, undue influence

FORMAL REQUISITES
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1. Authorized Solemnizing Officer

2. Valid marriage license (120 days)

When license not required:

 Man and woman have lived together as husband and wife for at least 5 years; without any legal impediment
to marry each other

 Point of Death Marriage (Articulo Mortis)

 If either party is in remote/distant place with no means of transportation to appear before civil registrar

 Marriages among Muslim/ethnic cultural communities solemnized in accordance with their customs, rites,
practices

3. Marriage Ceremony

 Contracting parties personally appear before solemnizing officer

 Declaration to take each other as husband and wife

 Not less than two (2) witnesses

ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGE / DECLARATION OF NULLITY

VOID MARRIAGES

 Where either party is below 18 years of age even with consent

 Lack of authority on the part of the solemnizing officer; unless either or both parties believed in good faith
that he was authorized

 No marriage license; exception

 Mistake as to identity of the other contracting party

 Marriages under Article 36 of the Family Code (psychological incapacity)

 Between collateral blood relatives up to the 4th civil degree

 Between step-parents and stepchildren

 Between parents-in-law and children-in-law

 Between the adopting parent and the adopted child

 Between the surviving spouse of the adopting parent and the adopted child

 Between the surviving spouse of the adopted child and the adopter

 Between an adopted child and a legitimate child of the adopter

 Between adopted children of the same adopter

 Between parties where one with the intention to marry the other, killed that other person’s spouse or his or
her own spouse.

VOIDABLE MARRIAGES

 Where either party was 18 or over but below 21, without consent

 Where either party was of unsound mind

 Where consent obtained by fraud

 Where consent was obtained by force, intimidation or undue influence

 Where either party was physically incapable of consummating the marriage with the other, and such
incapacity continues and appears to be incurable

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  Where either party was afflicted with a sexually-transmissible disease found to be serious and appears to be
incurable

LEGAL SEPARATION

 Repeated physical violence or grossly abusive conduct directed against the petitioner, a common child, or a
child of the petitioner

 Physical violence or moral pressure to compel the petitioner to change religious or political affiliation

 Attempt of respondent to corrupt or induce the petitioner, a common child, or a child of the petitioner to
engage in prostitution, or connivance in such corruption or inducement

 Final judgment sentencing the respondent to imprisonment of more than six years, even if pardoned

 Drug addiction or habitual alcoholism of the respondent

 Lesbianism or homosexuality of the respondent

 Contracting by the respondent of a subsequent bigamous marriage, whether in the Philippines or abroad

 Sexual infidelity or perversion

 Attempt by the respondent against the life of the petitioner

 Abandonment of petitioner by respondent without justifiable cause for more than one year.