• Nullity is *not* "Catholic divorce".  The Church does not take a valid marriage and make it "invalid". All valid marriages are unbreakable except by death of a spouse.  

• Nullity is *not* a delegitimization of offspring. The fruit of your relations in what was assumed to be a valid union is *not* diminished in its goodness, beauty, or blessing by virtue of Nullity. 

• Nullity is not a matter of civil law.  Civil divorce is the province of the State and bears no impact on nullity of a marriage. 

There is little to compare with the devastation of a marriage that ends in civil divorce.  Few of us approach our wedding day without first assuming this marriage will last "forever".  We carefully choose our "first song", practice a few ballroom steps, and count on blue skies ahead.  

And then something intervenes. Whatever its origin, whatever its nature, this "something" shatters and salts the Garden of Eden you longed to care for all your life. 

Before long you fall in love again; you marry before a judge or a Protestant minister; but you long for unity with Our Lord in Communion. The impediment of divorce-and-remarriage is shared by many in the 21st century.  But this doesn't have to be the final word. The Church, in Her great mercy, has a path of reunion with the Sacrament that neither sanctions a second marriage, nor insists that under all circumstances, your original marriage was valid.  

The path of Nullity is not an easy step, but the priests of Sacred Heart are ready to assist. Please contact the Rectory at (630) 627-0687 if you would like to meet with a member of the Clergy and discuss your situation.

III. MATRIMONIAL CONSENT

1625 The parties to a marriage covenant are a baptized man and woman, free to contract marriage, who freely express their consent; "to be free" means: 

- not being under constraint; 

- not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law. 

1626 The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable element that "makes the marriage." If consent is lacking there is no marriage. 

1627 The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other": "I take you to be my wife" - "I take you to be my husband." This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one flesh."

1628 The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, free of coercion or grave external fear. No human power can substitute for this consent.  If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid. 

1629 For this reason (or for other reasons that render the marriage null and void) the Church, after an examination of the situation by the competent ecclesiastical tribunal, can declare the nullity of a marriage, i.e., that the marriage never existed.  In this case the contracting parties are free to marry, provided the natural obligations of a previous union are discharged.