Annulled Marriage

[Philanthro]

Hi, are children who were born from a marriage that was later annulled considered illigitimate?

[Rosetta]

I thought the basis for annullment was non consumation, therefore there could be no children at all.
Maybe there are other grounds I am not aware of, or should I be looking skyward? LOL

[Octavius]

No, all children born of an annulled marriage are legitimate, even if it was a putative marriage.

[Rosetta]

Octavius, could you give an example please?

[Octavius]

Pardon? An example of what?

[Rosetta]

I am not being confrontational Octavious, I always understood annullment was on the grounds of non consumation.
I wanted a clarification of an example to the contrary, eg a putative marriage?

[Octavius]

Rosetta, an annulment does not have any effect on the legitimacy of any children born of the union.

[Rosetta]

But if the basis of annullment is non consumation there can't be any children, legitimate or otherwise. This is where I am confused

[Octavius]

Rosetta, I didn't consider you were being confrontational, just wasn't sure what you meant by 'an example'.

A declaration of nullity has no bearing on the legitimacy of any children born from the presumed valid union because the presumption of validity is always the position of the Church towards all marriages. The Church upholds the children of marriages where at least one of the partners believed, at the time of marital consent, that it was a real marriage.

In addition, �legitimacy� is a civil term and thereby rendering all children born under a civil marriage legitimate.

[Rosetta]

Ah, a possible scenario would be in, for example, a bigamous marriage where the wife bore a child not knowing the father was already married ?

[Ethel]

Annulment can occur for many reasons, including:

One of them was already married at the time of the wedding
One of them was two young to be legally married
One was drunk or drugged at the time of marriage and was not capable of understanding the vows
One was mentally incompetent at the time of the marriage
One was forced or coerced into the marriage
They were too closely related to be legally married
One was sexually impotent at the time of the marriage

Children born during such a marriage are legitimate, and remain legitimate

[Octavius]

Oh I see.

I trust Ethel has cleared up any confusion.

[Rosetta]

Thankyou Ethel and Octavius.
I must be a concrete thinker LOL
I think one of the problems on this site is that the shenanigans on CB taints other posts

[terambulan]

Sometimes mixed faith marriages are annulled by opposing faiths.....it's actually divorce in UK Registry. If the marriage was registered under UK law, even if mixed faiths, the children are legitimate in law.

Annulled by a faith, eg christianity, the person is then free have a church wedding, which is not normally allowed for divorcees (only blessings). Makes no difference to the legitimacy of children.

[Rosetta]

With some posts, is it light the blue touch paper and retire?

[Ethel]

Yes, I think there is a confusion between marriages that can be annulled at law, as in the examples I gave, and marriages that are lawful but have resulted in divorce.

Where divorce is considered 'shameful' to that person's religious beliefs, they can petition their faith leaders to declare the marriage null and void in the eyes of their church, meaning they can marry again in that church (or mosque, synagogue, temple, whatever religion it may be).

In that instance the first marriage still must legally ended in divorce before the second marriage can take place.