Before he was ordained, Deacon Nathan Allen practiced law. Today, he serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, which reviews cases for annulment. With his legal background and to further understanding, he recently described the marriage contract in the context of a legal document.
A purchase agreement for a house, for example, includes a number of clauses. If they are all fine, the buyer signs the agreement. With marriage, those clauses are in the wedding vows, he said.
Deacon Nathan AllenLatin classes
If a person promises ‘til death do us part, “but really means we’ll give it a go for a few years and see if we’re still happy, we’ll kind of re-up our lease,” that person has not consented to marriage, he said, but to something radically different from what the Catholic Church understands marriage to mean.
Similarly, if a person promises to forsake all others but really means to cheat whenever an occasion presents itself, Deacon Allen said, that person is saying “I do,” but means “I don’t.”
Or there are annulment cases where strong internal pressures may “short-circuit a person’s decision-making capacity,” Deacon Allen said, sometimes seen with a young woman who is pregnant, for example, “where the person can’t not marry.” That internal compulsion could be serious enough to undermine a person’s capacity to make a reasoned, mature evaluation and discernment regarding marriage, he said.
Deacon Allen recently joined “Practicing Catholic” host Patrick Conley to discuss potential cases for annulment and what the process looks like.
The annulment process takes two tracks, he said: either a formal case where evidence is taken to attempt to get inside the heads of the parties the day of the wedding, with “a little more witness testimony;” or a shorter case, such as with “an undispensed impediment,” most commonly, one party is already married in the eyes of the Church.
Deacon Allen said a free annulment consultation is being offered at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul March 2, Ash Wednesday. Participants can stop by throughout the day without an appointment. That same day, annulment consultations will be offered for Spanish speakers at Our Lady of Guadalupe in St. Paul. People can stop by Our Lady of Guadalupe anytime through the day March 2 or make an appointment at (651) 228-0506. For more information, visit archspm.org and search for events.
To learn more about the annulment process and what to expect at the free consultations, listen to the full interview with Deacon Allen. It debuts at 9 p.m. Feb. 18 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM and at 1 p.m. Feb. 19 and 2 p.m. Feb. 20.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the latest show also includes interviews with Archbishop Bernard Hebda, who provides an update on the Archdiocesan Synod, and Liz Kelly and Nell O’Leary from Blessed Is She, who describe a new, year-long devotional called “Made New.”
Listen to all of the interviews after they have aired at
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