The topic of annulments is an issue that is misunderstood by many, both within and outside of Roman Catholicism. While reading a rather informative booklet by Jimmy Akin, we find the following about the “Pauline” and “Petrine” privileges vis-à-vis annulments that some should find interesting:
What is the Pauline privilege?
The Pauline privilege is a way in which non-sacramental marriages, whether consummated or not, are dissolved. Since these marriages are not both consummated and sacramental, this is a possibility.
The Pauline privilege takes its name from a passage in St. Paul, where he writes: “If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him . . . But if the unbelieving partner desires to separate, let it be so; in such a case the brother or sister is not bound” (1 Cor. 7:13, 15).
Paul is addressing recently baptized members, so they would have been unbaptized at the time of their marriages and thus had natural (rather than sacramental) marriages that could in principle be dissolved. In the circumstance he envisions, one party has since been baptized, following which the unbelieving spouse desires to separate.
Paul indicates that the believer is not bound to the prior spouse in this case. The Church understands this to mean that the natural marriage between them can be dissolved, leaving them free to marry others.
There is a special procedure in canon law for handling such cases. Sometimes individuals in such situations wish to use this procedure rather than annulment to rectify their marital situations. In some cases, this is a practical possibility, but in other cases annulment is still the more prudent route to pursue. The experts on your local marriage tribunal can give further guidance on this matter.
What is the Petrine privilege?
The Petrine privilege involves a marriage in which one party was baptized at the time of the union and the other was not this is still a natural marriage, since both parties were not baptized. So theoretically, it can be dissolved. There are additional conditions that have to be met, but this is the most fundamental.
Also the procedure or the Petrine privilege cannot be done locally. The matter has to be forwarded to Rome, and only the pope can dissolve the marriage. This is quite rare; in the great majority of cases, the annulment process is the more prudent way of dealing with the situation. Again, the local marriage tribunal can offer counsel. (Jimmy Akin, Annulments: What You Need to Know [San Diego: Catholic Answers, 2005], 24-25)
