The Code

Marriage is a sacrament that joins the couple together under the eyes of God and legally under the state. When a couple decides to get married it should be for life, however sometimes couples choose to get married in a haste and then later realize that they do not want to stay in the marriage. If a couple has been married under the Roman Catholic Church and the marriage didn't work out then they cannot remarry in the Church unless they have had an annulment, even if they have already had a legal divorce.

Many couples decide to marry for the wrong reasons, for example most young couples have parents who don't approve of them having a relationship at a young age. If they believe that they are in love they usually think that the only way to have their relationship approved by their families is if they are married so that they can be together. Another example of marriages that were made for the wrong reasons is if an unwed girl becomes pregnant and the couple becomes pressured into getting married and when they do so, they realize later on that they made a mistake.

From the beginning, the church has believed that when you are married to someone you are binding yourself to that person for the rest of your life. Even Jesus and the Gospel of Luke was said to say that if a man or women decides to leave their husband or wife and then later remarry someone else it is considered infidelity or cheating. Over the years however, the Church has realized that many people have made mistakes in marrying someone, or that certain behaviors or attitudes that a spouse may have make it impossible for the marriage to work. The church came up with the process of annulment which invalidates the marriage and grants both of the people involved the permission to remarry if they choose if they believe that the marriage was never a "true marriage."

If the couple decides to get a divorce, they must also get an annulment if they would like to marry again in a church. There is a process that must be taken in order to have the marriage annulled. The church must investigate why the marriage didn't work out. In order to get the annulment their must be proof that from the start there was something missing that prevented the couple from binding them together for life.