Category Archives: Annulment

Annulment is a legal procedure for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning almost as if it had never taken place (though some jurisdictions provide that the marriage is only void from the date of the annulment. In strict legal terminology, annulment refers only to making a voidable marriage null; if the marriage is void ab initio, then it is automatically null, although a legal declaration of nullity is required to establish this. The process of obtaining such a declaration is similar to the annulment process. Generally speaking, annulment, despite its retrospective nature, still results in any children born being considered legitimate in the United States and many other countries. In Ireland a person can get divorced, however that divorce is not accepted by the Roman Catholic Church and if a person gets re-married, they are deemed to be in a perpetual state of sin. This means that a person in this state is barred from receiving Holy Communion. Since communion is a vital center to the Mass, he/she in essence does not participate fully in Mass. They can attend Mass, but not participate fully in Mass. They can participate and be part of the community aside from the communion component.