What are the reasons a decree of nullity would be issued?
In Church law, there are three basis reasons why a decree of nullity would be issued: • Catholics are required to be married in the presence of a duly authorized priest or deacon and two witnesses. The rite for marriage is to be followed. If some part of this required form for marriage was missing or inappropriate, a decree can be issued. • There are specific reasons why a marriage should not take place (impediments): the parties must be at least a certain age, they cannot be too closely related to each other, etc. If an investigation determines that an impediment existed at the time of the wedding, a decree can be issued. • The consent that one person gave when they married was invalid. There are specific reasons why the Church would consider someones consent as invalid. Those reasons include: • a person lacked the sufficient use of reason • a person lacked the degree of discretion of judgment proportionate to marriage concerning the essential rights and duties that are exchanged in m
