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he Annulment Process
he Annulment Process
Myth Two
Myth Three
Myth Four
Myth Five
Myth Six
Myth Seven
Myth Eigth
Myth Nine
Myth Ten

Myth No. 7:
"Annulments may be granted to one party, and not the other"

Thinking about this for a minute will reveal that it would not make sense. If an annulment is a determination about the marriage, then obviously it must affect both parties. The notation of an annulment will be made in each of their baptismal registers and in the marriage register. It will not erase anything already there but it will add that an annulment was granted. The annulment means that neither party is considered any longer to be bound to the marriage they undertook to enter. But this is not the last word.

For neither party is an annulment a revolving door from one marriage into another. We have already noted that canon law does not permit a second marriage unless the diocesan bishop gives consent, after determining that the person is fulfilling his or her natural and moral obligations. A person who has deliberately defaulted in the process, without presenting an acceptable explanation, will not be granted this permission without contacting the Tribunal and following the measures the law requires at that point. He or she, at any rate, will not have received a decree, which is only issued to parties who have participated. Without seeing such a decree, a Catholic officiant cannot proceed to witness another marriage of a person whose marriage has been annulled. Not only is this a matter of basic fairness, but it is a way in which the Church exercises pastoral care for the security of a future marriage and justice to the former spouse and the children.