What is a declaration of invalidity?
Our Church teaches that once a baptized couple is truly married, the ‘bond’ of this union lasts until one of them dies. Even after a civil divorce, we do not consider either of them free to remarry while the other one is still alive. We also hold, however, that various things can cause an apparently valid marriage to be in reality invalid. When a union is irremediably broken we will, at the request of either party, search to discover if any such defect existed from the start, even though nobody suspected this at the time. If such a flaw was certainly present we declare the fact, and the Church no longer regards the parties as bound by the bond of that union.
