It is necessary to make it clear that the Church does not annul validly contracted and consummated sacramental unions, but can, after proceedings by the Ecclesiastical Court, recognize that there never was a marriage, even in cases where everyone considered it valid.
There are many reasons that can render a sacramental marriage null and void.
The psychological capabilities and limitations of the bride and groom are taken into account when entering into marital obligations forever. It is not enough to analyze someone’s external behavior to know them; Sometimes, many people’s acts are irresponsible, undertaken without full awareness, because they may lack the sense of responsibility, maturity or freedom necessary for the act to have fully human and legal value.
It may happen that the marriage bond never existed if there is an error that makes the consent of the bride and groom invalid.
And what are the reasons why a marriage can be null? There are, according to , nineteen reasons:
A. Failures of consent (canons 1057 and 1095-1102)
1. Lack of capacity to consent (canon 1095)
2. Ignorance (canon 1096)
3. Error (canons 1097-1099)
4. Simulation (canon 1101)
5. Violence or fear (canon 1103)
6. Condition not fulfilled (canon 1102)
B. Ruling impediments (canons 1083-1094)
7. Age (canon 1083)
8. Impotence (canon 1084)
9. Bond (canon 1085)
10. Cult disparity (canon 1086,- cf canons 1124s)
11. Sacred Order (canon 1087)
12. Perpetual Religious Profession (canon 1088)
13. Abduction (canon 1089)
14. Crime (canon 1090)
15. Consanguinity (canon 1091)
16. Affinity (canon 1092)
17. Public honesty (canon 1093)
18. Legal kinship by adoption (canon 1094)
C. Lack of canonical form in the celebration of marriage (canons 1108-1123)
We will now place the Canons of the Code of Canon Law on each item; an explanatory article on each item can be read in our book “Família, Santuário da Vida” (Ed. Cléofas).
A. Failures of consent (canons 1057 and 1095-1102)
«Canon 1057 – § 1 – Marriage is produced by legitimately expressed consent between legally capable persons, and this consent cannot be supplied by any human power.
§ 2 – Matrimonial consent is the act of will by which the man and the woman, by , give and receive each other to establish marriage».
The marital consent thus required may be prevented or made impossible by:
1. Lack of capacity to consent (canon 1095)
«Canon 1095 – “They are incapable of contracting marriage:
1st- those who do not have sufficient use of reason;
2nd – those who have a serious lack of discretion regarding the essential rights and obligations of marriage, which must be mutually given and received;
3rd- those who are not capable of assuming the essential obligations of marriage for reasons of a psychological nature».
2. Ignorance (canon 1096)
«Canon 1096 – § 1. In order for there to be marital consent, it is necessary that the contracting parties do not ignore, at the very least, that marriage is a permanent consortium between man and woman, ordered to the offspring through some sexual cooperation.
§ 2 This ignorance is not presumed after puberty».
3. Error (canons 1097 and 1099)
«Canon 1099 – An error regarding the unity, indissolubility or sacramental dignity of marriage, as long as it does not determine the will, does not vitiate marital consent».
To avoid the error of law and the problems arising from it, the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops (CNBB) issued the following rule:
«Priests should take care to check whether the bride and groom are willing to accept the experience of marriage with all its requirements, including the total, in the various circumstances and situations of their conjugal and family life. Such dispositions of the bride and groom must be made clear in a declaration that they accept marriage as the Church understands it, including indissolubility” (Pastoral Guidelines on Marriage, no. 2.15).
Canon 1097, § 1: “The error of a person makes a marriage invalid.”
“An error in the quality of the person, although it is the cause of the contract, does not render the marriage null and void, unless this quality is directly and mainly intended” (canon 1097 § 2).
Canon 1098: «Whoever contracts a marriage, deceived by fraud perpetrated to obtain marital consent, with respect to some quality of the other party, a quality that, by its nature, could seriously disturb the partnership of conjugal life, contracts it unduly».
4. Simulation (canon 1101)
“Internal consent is presumed to be in accordance with the words or signs used in the celebration of marriage” (§ 1).
“However, if one of the parties or both, by a positive act of will, excludes from the marriage itself, some essential element of the marriage or some essential property, they contract invalidly” (§ 2).
5. Violence or fear (canon 1103)
«A marriage contracted through violence or serious fear arising from an external cause is invalid, even if not directed to extort consent, and when, in order to free oneself from it, someone is forced to contract the marriage».
6. Condition not fulfilled (canon 1102)
Ǥ 1. Marriage cannot be validly contracted under conditions of future.
§ 2. A marriage contracted under past or present conditions is valid or not, depending on whether or not that which is the object of the condition exists».
B. Legal impediments (Can. 1083-94)
7. Age
The minimum age for a sacramental marriage to be valid is 14 for girls and 16 for boys. They can exempt themselves from this condition, but they rarely do so. The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil requires two more years for marriages in Brazil, that is, 16 and 18 years respectively; However, this requirement concerns the legality, not the validity of the marriage. See canon 1083.
8. Impotence
Impotence (or inability to practice marital copulation) prior to marriage and perpetual, absolute or relative, is a definitive impediment. See canon 1084.
9. Bond
The bond of a validly contracted marriage, even if not consummated. See canon 1085.
10. Cult disparity
A marriage between a Catholic and a non-Catholic person is invalid if the Catholic party does not request exemption from the impediment.
11. Holy Order
Diaconal, presbyteral or episcopal ordination. See canon 1087.
12. Perpetual religious profession
See canon 1088.
13. Kidnapping
Cf. canon 1089. A woman taken by force cannot validly marry someone who takes her in that way.
14. Crime
Cf. canon 1090. Those who kill his or her consort, to facilitate a subsequent marriage, are prevented from validly carrying out that marriage. Likewise, if a man and a woman, by mutual agreement, kill the husband or wife of one of them, they cannot validly marry each other.
15. Consanguinity
See canon 1091. There is no dispensation in the vertical line (father with daughter, grandfather with granddaughter…); on the horizontal line, the impediment (dispensable) goes up to the fourth degree, that is, it affects uncles, nieces and cousins.
16. Affinity in the vertical line
Cf. canon 1092. There is no valid marriage between the husband and his wife’s blood relatives and between the wife and her husband’s blood relatives, assuming previously occurring widowhood. (Author’s Note: For example, a widower cannot marry his ex-wife’s mother or daughter). On the horizontal line there is no impediment: one can marry a (single) sister of his deceased wife.
17. Public honesty
Cf. canon 1093. Anyone living in an illegitimate union is prohibited from marrying the children or parents of their partner.
18. Legal kinship
Cf. canon 1094. Marriage between the adopter and the adopted or between one of them and the closest relatives of the other is not permitted. This impediment, like others on this list, can be waived by dispensation issued by the diocesan authority.
C. Lack of Canonical form in the celebration (Can. 1108-23)
«Canonical form» is the set of elements required for the ritual celebration of marriage. In fact, it is required that the ceremony takes place in front of the local parish priest and at least two witnesses (godparents).
«Canon 1116 – § 1. If it is not possible, without serious inconvenience, to have the competent assistant in accordance with the law, or if it is not possible to go to him, those who intend to contract a true marriage can contract it validly and licitly only before the witnesses:
1st – in danger of death;
2nd – out of danger of death, as long as it is prudently anticipated that this state of affairs will last for a month.
§ 2. In both cases, if there is another priest or deacon who can be present, he must be called, and he must be present at the celebration of the marriage, together with the witnesses, saving the validity of the marriage only before the witnesses».
Dissolution of unconsummated marriage
Canon 1142: «An unconsummated marriage between baptized people or between a baptized party and an unbaptized party may be dissolved by the Roman Pontiff for just cause, at the request of both parties or one of them, even if the other opposes».
Felipe Aquino
Professor Felipe Aquino is a widower, father of five children. On TV , he presents the program “Escola da Fé” and “Pergunte e Responderemos”, on Radio he presents the program “No Coração da Igreja”. On weekends he holds in-depth meetings throughout Brazil and abroad. He wrote 73 books on Catholic formation for publishers Cléofas, Loyola and. Teacher page: and Twitter: