Head of diocesan Tribunal discusses Marriage, annulments
“Does Jesus really care about all of this?”
Yes.
“He told us very clearly, repeatedly, that he does care about it,” stated Father Brad Berhorst, judicial vicar for the Jefferson City diocese.
Specifically: “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery,” (Matthew 5:32).
The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke each report Jesus saying this more than once.
That’s why the Church takes the indissolubility of marriage as seriously as it does.
Fr. Berhorst, director of the diocesan Matrimonial Tribunal, talked about marriage and annulments during a Feb. 11 meeting organized by the Immaculate Conception Parish Divorce Support Group in Jefferson City.
About 50 people attended.
The Tribunal handles requests for a declaration of nullity of a marriage, also known as an annulment.
“For someone who was married to remarry in a way the Church sees as valid, requires a declaration of nullity, or an annulment,” said Fr. Berhorst.
An annulment is an official declaration that it has been proven beyond doubt that a previous attempt at marriage was invalid due to a particular defect at the time the couple exchanged vows.
The Church provides a judicial process for seeking an annulment, but otherwise assumes that all marriages within the Church and outside of it are valid and cannot, in the words of the Marriage Rite, “be put asunder.”
“The Lord taught these things repeatedly, and we don’t have the authority to say he didn’t mean what he said,” said Fr. Berhorst.
The Church does recognize that sometimes it is advantageous, or even necessary for a couple to seek a civil separation or a civil divorce.
Merely being divorced does not prevent a person from receiving Holy Communion and taking part in the sacramental life of the Church.
However, couples who are separated or divorced civilly are not free to remarry in the Church unless they receive an annulment.
Paragraphs 1646-1650 from the Catechism of the Catholic Church make all of this clear.
The Jefferson City diocese, through parish tithes under the stewardship model, covers the costs for people in the diocese seeking an annulment.
Indissoluble bonds
Fr. Berhorst, a St. Martins native and Helias Catholic High School graduate, holds a degree in Church law from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Archbishop Shawn McKnight, formerly of Jefferson City, appointed him judicial vicar in 2023.
He acknowledged that talking about annulments and the process of seeking an annulment can be difficult to understand.
“It’s a topic that for even among those who grew up in the Church, there can be a lot of misunderstanding or lack of information — about what it is and isn’t, what it means or doesn’t mean, and how it works,” he said.
Fr. Berhorst said the key to understanding annulments is to understand how the Church views marriage and what is required to enter into it.
He quoted a section from the Catechism, stating that marriage is a reflection of the fidelity of God to his covenant and of Christ to his Church. By its nature, the love between spouses must be definitive, requiring inviolable fidelity between them.
Marriage is ordered to mutual self-giving and the good of the children born into the marriage, and built on the “total fidelity of the spouses and an unbreakable union.”
“And at a basic level,” said Fr. Berhorst, “marriage is not the kind of thing that ceases to exist because we decide not to do it anymore. When a couple exchanges vows, that expresses the permanence of that bond.”
When couples take one another as husband and wife in marriage, “it means they’re making a commitment they can’t uncommit from,” said Fr. Berhorst.
“The spouses themselves bestow the Sacrament of Marriage on one another,” he said. “When they consent to the bond of marriage, they no longer have power over that bond.”
Nor does the Church recognize the authority of the civil government to dissolve a valid marriage.
In situations in which a civil divorce is justifiable or even necessary for the safety and wellbeing of both spouses, neither is free to enter into a new union.
“The Church, in fidelity to Christ himself, does not believe the separation or civil divorce of spouses dissolves the bond of marriage,” said Fr. Berhorst.
This is a clear example of the Church recognizing the limits of its own authority, namely to go against something Jesus stated with such clarity.
The Church understands that this teaching about marriage is not always an easy reality to live.
For that matter, living any vocation faithfully is difficult and at times may seem impossible.
“We admit up-front that it can seem difficult or impossible to bind oneself to another for life,” said Fr. Berhorst. “We offer no delusion that we think it’s going to be easy.”
“Jesus knows”
Most people who seek an annulment do so because they wish to enter into a new marriage with the Church’s blessing, or to have their currently irregular marriage be lawful in the Church.
In order for that to take place, the previous marriage would have to be officially declared to have been invalid.
“There must be a determination that that indissoluble bond of marriage did not come into existence” in a previous attempt at marriage, said Fr. Berhorst.
“Because the Church maintains that if the spouses were validly married, the bond of marriage remains, even if their civil government says it does not,” he said.
“So, an annulment is a declaration that while what looked like a marriage did exist, entered into and even lived out in good faith by both parties and seemed to be a marriage, for some reason, it has been proven that that indissoluble bond of marriage never came into existence,” he stated.
He reiterated that an annulment is not a dissolution of a valid marriage.
“It’s a declaration that the true bond of marriage never came into existence,” he said.
A member of the audience softly responded, “That’s hard.”
“It is hard,” Fr. Berhorst responded. “Jesus knew it’s hard. It has always been hard. Jesus knows that. It’s okay. Jesus knows.”
Thorough examination
So, how can the Church determine that a valid marriage didn’t occur?
The Church teaches that a marriage requires both members to give consent through the exchange of vows, and that consent must be legitimately manifested between persons qualified by law.
If it can be proven beyond doubt that any of those aspects were missing at the time the couple exchanged vows, a determination can be given that a valid marriage did not take place.
“Legitimately manifested” ordinarily means in keeping with civil laws in addition to the faith-based requirements of the Church or any other ecclesial community witnessing the marriage.
For Catholics, that means marrying before a priest or deacon who has the proper authority, along with two witnesses.
The Church also respects the requirements for marriage that other ecclesial communities and civil authorities put in place.
“So, if a non-Catholic couple is married in accord with civil law, the Church generally considers that legitimately manifested,” said Fr. Berhorst.
“By persons qualified by law” means that both parties were not by some impediment prevented from marrying, such as being too young to marry, being too closely related, or being already married to someone else.
Was the attempt at marriage lawful? Was it conducted by someone who has legal standing to unite couples in marriage? Were both parties capable of giving their consent to be married or putting that consent into practice?
These are the things the Tribunal thoroughly investigates each time someone requests an annulment.
“We ask, ‘Was there something missing from one of those three elements?’” Fr. Berhorst explained. “If it can be proven that one of those three things was missing or defective, then we know that the indissoluble bond of marriage did not come into existence.”
In 2015, the Church law governing the annulment process was reformed in order to simplify it and make it more accessible.
Even so, it remains thorough and often time-consuming, depending on the situation.
Officials of the diocesan Tribunal examine any relevant documents, as well as testimony taken, if possible, from spouses and any witnesses.
Both parties are given an opportunity to review all the information and testimony that’s been submitted.
A canon lawyer is assigned to defend the bond in each case, helping to ensure that a valid marriage is not mistakenly declared null.
A panel of three judges who have degrees in Church law examines the case and the relevant sections of Church law.
The three judges then discuss the case to determine whether they can reach moral certitude that a valid marriage did not exist.
Once a decision has been made, either party may seek an appeal before the decision is made final.
Status report
Fr. Berhorst noted that an annulment is entirely the result of a judicial process, not a favor being granted by the Church.
“The task of the judges is not to decide whether someone should be allowed to marry again,” he noted. “We don’t have the authority to decide that.”
Rather, “the process for receiving a declaration of nullity is simply an investigation of the parties’ marital status,” he said. “The judges must determine whether a valid bond of marriage exists between the two parties, and therefore whether they are free to marry in the Church.”
The Tribunal’s initial acceptance of a case is never a guarantee that an annulment will be declared.
“Sometimes, the Church has to say ‘no,’” said Fr. Berhorst. “The Church obliges the judges of the Tribunal, based on the Lord’s teaching, not to claim the authority that we do not have.”
In fact, the judges are obliged to assume from the outset that every marriage is valid. Proving otherwise can be difficult.
For instance, if one of the parties says he or she from the beginning did not intend this marriage to be permanent, that must be proven in order for the marriage to be declared null.
“At a wedding, the couple stood before God and everyone else and said that they’re going to do these things,” said Fr. Berhorst. “So, we are required to presume that they meant all those things when they said them, and it must be proven that they intentionally excluded something.”
Barriers to consent
The most common requests for annulments are based on the giving of consent in the marriage.
This may include one or both of the parties having been coerced into marriage, or having only pretended to get married in order to help someone else obtain immigration status.
It could also involve a psychological condition or diagnosed mental illness that rendered one of the parties incapable of entering marriage or of fulfilling the obligations of marriage.
“If we can show that one or both parties were not capable of consenting to marry, to make that deliberate decision to enter into that kind of union, or not able to fulfill the obligations of marriage — then we conclude they didn’t do what they could not do,” said Fr. Berhorst.
He noted that the judges are required to consult with a mental health professional while reviewing such a case.
Overall, the priest stated, annulment cases based on consent are the hardest to prove.
He emphasized that things that happen after a couple enters into marriage might point to a defect of consent that existed at the time the vows were exchanged, but unto themselves do not warrant a declaration of nullity.
“Something that happens later cannot invalidate the marriage from the beginning,” he stated.
Where to begin
Fr. Berhorst noted that there are other relevant factors that are too complicated to explain in a short gathering, but that figure into the research the Tribunal carries out.
He answered numerous questions about specific situations from people who had already sought an annulment or were considering seeking one.
Fr. Berhorst said that to begin the annulment process, a person should contact his or her pastor.
That priest will either guide the parishioner through the process, or will direct them to another person who will be able to do that.
“It’s also useful from a human and spiritual standpoint to talk to your priest about this,” said Fr. Berhorst. “It gives them a chance to be a pastor to you.”
He noted that many people seeking an annulment are looking for something the process was not designed to give directly: peace and closure.
“Sometimes, those things can come through the annulment process, and that’s the work of the Holy Spirit,” he noted. “But ultimately that is not the purpose of the annulment process.”
He pointed instead to parish-based divorce support groups such as the one he was addressing.
“The healing people are looking for and the support they need will come from Jesus and through groups like these,” he said. “I’m grateful for the work being done to get these groups off the ground.”
