MARRIAGE AND INVALIDITY… Reconciliation and Healing

GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING MARRIAGE AND INVALIDITY

The Catholic Church, because it acknowledges marriage as a holy covenant which is entered into for life, holds that certain elements are essential to make the marriage valid. Consequently, when a decree of invalidity is sought from a Tribunal, it means that one of the Parties of the marriage believes that one or more of those elements was not present from the very beginning of the marriage. There are both subjective and objective elements to marriage. The Church sometimes determines through a marriage validity study that people who have been through a wedding ceremony never contracted a valid bond.