ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGES

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27664, 21 May 1955, Page 7

ANNULMENT OF MARRIAGES

Proposals By Church Commission LONDON. May 19. Twelve leading churchmen suggested in a report today that the Church of England should accept five grounds for annulling a marriage. The grounds—recognised by English divorce courts for annulling a marriage—are: mental defectiveness, unsoundness of mind, recurrent fits of insanity or epilepsy, venereal disease in a communicable form, and pregnancy by another man —all present at the time of marriage. The report urged the Church not to accept the wilful refusal to consummate marriage as a ground for annulment. The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Geoffrey Fisher) and the Archbishop of York (Dr. Cyril Garbett) appointed the churchmen as a commission in 1949. Five bishops are included. The proposahrfor the Church not to accept wilful refusal to consummate marriage as a ground for annulment revives an old controversy among clergy. People obtaining decrees on this ground have been married in the Church of England since 1937. The churchmen say that they favour wilful refusal to consummate only where it results from psychological incapacity. “If refusal to consummate were treated as evidence of incapacity —as in proper cases we think it should be—a decree of nullity would be given on the ground of impotence and would be open on no canonical objection.” The report rejects homo-sexuality as a ground for nullity. It said: “The term homo-sexuality is often used inaccurately or vaguely. Although it is frequently regarded as a male phenomenon, it is hardly less extensive among women than among men.” It adds that the whole question of homosexuality will have to be examined in the light of further knowledge and experience before any recommendations can be made to change the law.