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Can sin be voided?

krisp
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Post #1 of 2 (2687 views)

Can sin be voided?

My husband and I have been married for almost sixteen years and have four children. We were married in the Catholic church. He at the time was a non-practicing Lutheran and I a practicing Catholic. We raised our children Catholic and three years into our marriage, he himself became a Catholic. For about a year and a half, he has been having an affair. He has moved out and wants to marry her. I've tried every angle I could to try and work out our marriage. I am now told that I can seek and annulment and quite assuringly, told by three priests that it's likely to be nullified. Meaning he is able to marry this girl. My question is this....isn't he committing adultery at this point in time, yet if an annulment goes through, is his sin of adultery erased?

Frieda Arpoika
CATHOLIC LAY PASTORAL MINISTER

Post #2 of 2 (2677 views)

Re: [krisp] Can sin be voided? [In reply to]

Annulments do not forgive any sins. They simply establish that when someone entered the marriage, he or she were not ready to make a commitment for life. Something was lacking from the beginning, maybe knowledge and understanding of what marriage is, lack of maturity, whatever. All the Church can do is look at the externals to see if something was lacking already at the time of the vows. Apparently something was or he would have been able to keep the marriage covenant for life. Maybe a lack of maturity, ability to be faithful, understanding ... I can only guess.
Sin is another thing. An annulment can declare a marriage invalid since the ability to keep the commitment was lacking, but it does not absolve him from any sin. That is a matter of conscience. The responsibility for his actions remains. Often the Tribunal will put a stipulation on the annulment requiring counselling before entering another marriage to make sure people don't repeat the same mistake. Counselling can increase awareness, knowledge, understanding and the ability next time enter a commitment with more maturity and more of a sense of responsibility.
Frieda Arpoika
Catholic Lay Pastoral Minister
St. Daniel Catholic Community