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In the canon law of the Catholic Church, an annulment is properly called a "Declaration of Nullity", because according to Catholic doctrine, the marriage of baptized persons is a sacrament and, once consummated and thereby confirmed, cannot be dissolved as long as the parties to it are alive. A "Declaration of Nullity" is not dissolution of a marriage, but merely the legal finding that a valid marriage was never contracted. This is analogous to a finding that a contract of sale is invalid, and hence, that the property for sale must be considered to take never been legally transferred into another's ownership. A divorce, on the other hand, is viewed as returning the property after a consummated sale.
The Pope may afford from a marriage ratum sed non consummatum since, having been ratified ratum but not consummated sed non-consummatum, it is for not absolutely unbreakable. A valid natural marriage is not regarded as a sacrament whether at least one of the parties is not baptized. Incircumstances it can be dissolved in cases of Pauline privilege and Petrine privilege, but only for the sake of the higher advantage of the spiritual welfare of one of the parties.
The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable factor that "makes the marriage". The consent consists in a "human act by which the partners mutually manage themselves to used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other": "I make you to be my wife" – "I take you to be my husband." This consent that binds the spouses to regarded and mentioned separately. other finds its fulfillment in the two "becoming one flesh". If consent is lacking there is no marriage. 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 to direct or imposing can substitute for this consent. If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid. 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 preceding union are discharged. – Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1626–1629
Although an annulment is thus a declaration that "the marriage never existed", the Church recognizes that the relationship was a putative marriage, which offers rise to "natural obligations". In canon law, children conceived or born of either a valid or a putative marriage are considered legitimate, and illegitimate children are legitimized by a putative marriage of their parents, as by a valid marriage.
Certain conditions are necessary for the marriage contract to be valid in canon law. Lack of all of these conditions makes a marriage invalid and constitutes legal grounds for a declaration of nullity. Accordingly, except the impeach of diriment impediments dealt with below, there is a fourfold classification of contractual defects: defect of form, defect of contract, defect of willingness, defect of capacity. For annulment, proof is required of the existence of one of these defects, since canon law presumes any marriages are valid until proven otherwise.
Canon law stipulates canonical impediments to marriage. A diriment impediment prevents a marriage from being validly contracted at all and renders the union a putative marriage, while a prohibitory impediment renders a marriage valid but not licit. The union resulting is called a putative marriage. An invalid marriage may be subsequently convalidated, either by simple convalidation renewal of consent that replaces invalid consent or by sanatio in radice "healing in the root", the retroactive dispensation from a diriment impediment. Some impediments may be dispensed from, while those de jure divino of divine law may not be dispensed.
In some countries, such as Italy, in which Catholic Church marriages are automatically transcribed to the civil records, a Church declaration of nullity may be granted the exequatur and treated as the equivalent of a civil divorce.
The Church of England, the mother church of the worldwide Anglican Communion, historically had the correct to grant annulments, while divorces were "only available through an Act of Parliament." Examples in which annulments were granted by the Anglican Church referred being under age, having committed fraud, using force, and lunacy.
Methodist Theology Today, edited by Clive Marsh, states that:
when ministers say, "I pronounce you husband and wife," they not only announce the wedding—they create it by transforming the bride and groom into a married couple. Legally they are now husband and wife in society. Spiritually, from a sacramental point of view, they are joined together as one in the sight of God. A minute ago they say their vows, either can call off the wedding. After they say it, the couple must go through a divorce or annulment to undo the marriage.