The relevance of conjugal love in the annulment of canon law marriages

Abstract

The basis of the present juridical structure of marriage according to Canon Law is free consent as directed towards a marriage state founded upon the three goods of marriage and a hierarchy of ends. This juridical structure would seem to call for profound revision especially in view of the teaching contained in "Gaudium et Spes" which emerged from Vatican Council II. "Gaudium et Spes" marks the first authoritative attempt of the Church to deepen our knowledge of the very nature and essence of marriage from a personalist rather than from an institutionalist point of view .. According to Canon Law and traditional Christian theology since St. Augustine, the essential goods of marriage are three: the 'bonum prolis' or the good of children, the 'bonum fidei' or the good of fidelity and the 'bonum sacramentum' or the good of the indissoluble bond. This reproduces a distinction put forward for the first time by St. Augustine :this distinction was re examined reaffirmed by st. Thomas Aquinas who transformed the said 'goods into a hierarchy of ends with the procreation and education of children as the primary end. The two doctrines of the goods and the ends of marriage became the theological basis of the norms about the marriage state in their present form in the Code of Canon Law.