Annulment

Annulment is a method under civil or canon law, similar to divorce, to declare that a marriage is not a real marriage. Though the Roman Catholic Church forbids divorce, it sometimes grants annulment, saying that the marriage never really happened.

Reasons include:

• At the time of the marriage, at least one was too young; the minimum age is set at 16 years for males and 14 for females. There may be higher limits though
• Ligamen, being already married
• The man was ordained, either as a priest, or as a member of a monastery.
• People are closely related.