Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Seasons of Grace

Home
Catholic
Can a Catholic Sign a Prenuptial Agreement?

Can a Catholic Sign a Prenuptial Agreement?

Last updated on: August 20, 2015 at 12:29 pm by Kathy Schiffer

Can a Catholic Sign a Prenuptial Agreement? 2015-08-20T12:29:47-05:00 Kathy Schiffer

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A prenuptial agreement is a contract signed by two parties, specifying how personal property will be divided after the marriage ends. And since the Catholic Church teaches that a sacramental marriage cannot be dissolved, never ends, then a prenuptial agreement is a denial of that truth–right?

Image: Pixabay

Consider the admonition in Matthew 19:6,

“So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

So Catholics can’t sign a prenuptial agreement, right?

I stopped to ponder the question after reading a column in The Tablet, a Catholic newspaper in Britain, by the president of Vardag’s family law firm, Ayesha Vardag. Vardag, who is Catholic, assists couples in arranging pre-nups or post-nups, and she believes that in so doing, she is helping to strengthen and preserve marriage. She writes:

Does it make sense for the Church to thin its ranks by pushing away those who worship with the deep spirit of the faith albeit not the letter of its currently prevailing law? Pope Francis tells us it does not. I hope a groundswell gathers, behind him, of realism, compassion and inclusion and makes a place for all those who want to be at the table.

“Better a prenup than a fearful avoidance of marriage,” Vardag writes. She describes the tension between her identity as a Catholic who believes that marriage is indissoluble, and as a divorce attorney whose task it is to broker an exit when the marriage falls apart. “One divorce solicitor,” Vardag explained,

“…dealt with this tension by taking his clients to church to offer up their ring for the needy. We might say we don’t break the marriage, we just resolve what is already broken. But I have certainly had clients to whom, if I believed them to be cruelly treated, abused or in a state of unresolvable unhappiness, I have counselled exit. And I believe that to have been right.”

But is she right?

Or does a prenuptial agreement signal that the couple isn’t really making a promise “until death do us part” but instead are simply promising to love one another as long as the dinner is tasty and the sex is good?

For insight on that question, I sought the advice of canon lawyer Ed Peters, who teaches at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. On his blog “In the Light of the Law,” Dr. Peters makes three points which are essential to the understanding of premarital contracts:

1. The Catholic Church does not oppose divorce in all circumstances. In some cases, civil divorce may be necessary to protect “certain legal rights, the care of children, or the protection of inheritance.” A person who is divorced is still able to receive the Eucharist; only if the person subsequently remarries without first receiving a canonical annulment is he or she precluded from reception of the Sacraments.

2. The Catholic rite of marriage is actually a pre-nuptial agreement in itself. When one party says “I take you as my husband/wife” and the other party does the same, that nugget within the wedding ceremony is actually the contract. All the rest, Dr. Peters notes–the promise to cherish “in good times and in bad” and recitals of love and exchange of rings–those things are lovely mutual promises but are so much window dressing on the actual statement of contract contained within the ceremony. And the promise, still common today, by a non-Catholic spouse to permit any children from the marriage to be raised in the Catholic faith is another “pre-nuptial agreement.”

3. Most importantly, Dr. Peters explains, a pre-nuptial agreement is a kind of contract. The morality of any contract, he continues, depends on its terms–and likewise, the morality (or immorality) of any pre-nuptial agreement depends on what it says. Peters explains:

One can, of course, easily imagine terms in pre-nuptial agreements that violate Church teaching on marriage. For all I know, these represent the great majority of pre-nups now in force. Such documents cannot in good conscience be signed. But one can also, I suggest, imagine terms in a pre-nup that are wholly consistent with, nay even supportive of, Church teaching on marriage. Indeed, one could construct a pre-nup that is deliberately counter-cultural and, even if parts of it came into play only in the face of divorce (which an unwilling party cannot prevent anyway), would discourage civil divorce undertaken in disregard of Christ’s teaching on marriage.

In short, the Church’s opposition to divorce is more nuanced than most people realize, the Church herself has made and still makes use of pre-nuptial agreements (though under different titles), and, like any contract, the morality of a pre-nuptial agreement eventually comes down to its terms, not its literary form.

You can read more, and find Dr. Peters’ careful references from the Catechism, here.

So is a pre-nuptial contract bad?

Not necessarily.

If, however, you are mouthing the words

“for better or worse, in sickness and in health, until death do us part”

but what you’re REALLY thinking is

“as long as she’s healthy and trim,

as long as he earns a good living and doesn’t drink too much,

and until someone better comes along…”

…then I have news for you: Your intent was duplicitous from the start; and without the intent of entering into a life-long union, the marriage is invalid.

Your loving-albeit-temporary relationship is an annulment just waiting to happen.

Annulment

Divorce

Marriage

Pre-nuptial Agreements

Previous Post

August 18, 2015

How to Improve Women's Sex Drive (HINT: It's Not Addyi)

Next Post

August 20, 2015 Josh Duggar Has Sinned. So Have You and I. So Shall We Get Out Our Stones and Start Scribbling?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #Synod14 Abortion Abstinence Abuse Addiction Adoption Advent Adventure Advertising Aging Agnosticism All Saints Day All Souls Day Amish Anathema Angels Anglican Animals Annulment Annunciation Apocalypse Apologetics Apostles Apostleship of the Sea Apparitions Archangels Archbishop Cordileone Archbishop Dolan Archbishop Vigneron Archeology Architecture Art Art Buchwald Ash Wednesday Assisted Suicide Astronauts Atheism Athletes Babies Baptism Beatification Beauty Bible Biochemistry Bioethics Birds Bishop Lori Bishops Blasphemy Books Canon Law Canonization Capital Punishment Cardinal Burke Cardinal Dolan Cardinal George Caritas Catechesis Catechism of the Catholic Church Catholic Catholic Education Catholic Higher Education Catholic Social Teaching Celibacy Cemeteries Character Charity Chastity Cheapskate Christian Unity Christmas Churches Civil Rights Cloning Comedy Communion of Saints Community Kitchens Confession Confirmation Conscience Consequences Consistory Constitution Contraception Conversion Cooking Councils of the Church Creativity Criminal Justice Cristero War Crucifixion Crystal Cathedral Culture Death Death and Dying Death Penalty Department of Health and Human Services Diaconate Dictatorship of Relativism Dignity Disability Discrimination Dissidence Divorce Doctors of the Church Early Church Fathers Easter Economics Ecumenism Education Encyclicals Environmentalism Episcopal Church Eucharist Euthanasia Evangelism Evangelists Evangelization Evolution Excuses Facebook Faith Families Family Fashion Fasting Fatherhood Federal Government Feminism Fiction Film First Amendment First Communion For Greater Glory Forgiveness Free Speech Friends Friendship Gender Discrimination Germany Gnosticism Good Friday Government Grace Greed Gregorian Calendar Happiness Health Heaven Heresy History Holidays Holiness Hollywood Holy Land Holy Saturday Holy Spirit Holy Week Holy Year Home Sweet Home Homosexuality Hope Humanism Humility Humor Imagination Immaculate Conception Immigration Impulsivity In Vitro Fertilization Incarnation Indulgences Infallibility Internet Islam Italy Jerusalem Jesus Judaism Justice Kathleen Sebelius Labor Movement LCWR Lent Life Literature Liturgy Lourdes Love Magi Marketing Marriage Martyrdom Martyrs Mary Mass Media Medical Ethics Mexico Michigan Miracles Missionaries Modernism Modesty Monks Monothelitism Motherhood Movies Mushrooms Music Muslim Mystery Mysticism Mythology Nativity Natural Law Nature New Evangelization New Media New Year New Year's Resolutions Nostalgia Obscenity Occult Old Testament Origen Orthodox Orvieto Pallium Papacy Parenting Patience Patriarch Bartholomew Patriotism Peace Peace and Justice Penitence Pentecost People Persecution Philosophy Poetry Political activism Political Correctness Politics Polls Pop Culture Pope Benedict XVI Pope Francis Pope John Paul II Pope John XXIII Pope Paul VI Pope St. Pius X Pope Urban VII Population Prayer Preaching Prejudice Pride Priesthood Pro-Life Protestantism Psychology Purgatory Queenship of Mary Racism Rape Real Presence Reconciliation Reformation Relics Religious Religious Liberty Reliquary Renewal Reproductive Technology Resurrection Rights Romance Rome Royalty Sacraments Sacred Heart Saints Satanism Science Science Fiction Scripture Seal of Confession Secularism Seniors September 11 Seventy Times Seven Sexuality Sharks Sin Smoking Social Communications Social Justice Social Networking Social Sciences Space Exploration Spirituality Sports St. Luke St. Patrick's Day St. Paul St. Peter St. Teresa of Avila Stations of the Cross Steve Jobs Superstition Supreme Court Symbolism Synod Technology Teen Rebellion Television Terrorism Thankfulness Thanksgiving Theology Think This, Not That Tobit Toilets Toys Tradition Traditions Transplants Travel Trinity Twitter U.S. Air Force Uncategorized United Nations USCCB Valentine Vatican Vatican Archives Vatican Blogfest Virtue Vocations Where We Pray White Heart Women World Day of Social Communications World Meeting of Families World News World Youth Day Worship Writing Year of Consecrated Life Year of Faith Year of Mercy Youth

Select a Month December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which book is written almost completely as poetry?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Isaiah Lamentations Jeremiah Ezra