There is a big difference between a Church marriage and a civil marriage although each institution recognizes the legitimacy of any validly contracted marriage within their jurisdictions.
The existing marital blues of Kris Aquino and James Yap indicate that legal separation is allowed in civil law. (Aquino and Yap did not marry in the Church.) Had they been married in the Catholic rite, to my knowledge, they cannot file for annulment if they don’t file for legal separation (or divorce) first. Although Kris and James have a civil marriage, in the eyes of the Catholic Church, they are just live-in partners. This does not mean to say that the Church does not recognize the validity of their civil marriage which in essence is similar with a Church wedding. Civil marriage is simply a contract while a Church wedding is something else.
Church wedding is different in substance. It is a sacrament and a covenant that the two enter into that binds them to live as husband and wife till death put them asunder. Since there is no divorce in this country, if there have been issues that invalidate the marriage ab initio, like force, threat or deceit that undermines the expression of a consenting will to name a few from the provisions of the Code of Canon Law, an approved annulment erases the effects of marriage. If a child is born while the marriage was in effect, his/her status is a legitimate child. Annulment restores the single status of the former husband and wife as if they did not contract marriage.
In both cases, Church and civil, when a court approves legal separation and the Church decrees that a marriage is annulled, each party is free to remarry. The Catholic Church does not use “remarry” but simply “marry”. -30-
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