Are there any civil effects to a Church annulment?
There are absolutely no civil effects to a Church annulment in our country. It does not effect in any manner the legitimacy of children, property rights, names etc. A Church annulment is a declaration that a particular marriage, presumably begun in good faith and thought by all to be a marriage was, in fact an invalid union as the Church describes marriage, there is no attempt in the investigation to impute guilt or apportion blame from the breakdown of the marriage. On the contrary, the purpose of the annulment procedure is to serve one’s conscience and spirit and to reconcile persons to full sacramental participation in the community of the Church.
