About This Ministry
Why this exists.
A note from the tribunal bench, on the help engaged couples deserve before they say "I do."
Every nullity case I write began, once, at an altar, where two people said "I do" without truly knowing what those words would ask of them. That is why this exists.
I have served the marriage tribunal of Enugu for twenty years, and I remain a parish priest. In that time I have read thousands of these cases. Each wedding day was, by every outward sign, beautiful. Yet each ended in a tribunal office, with two people asking the Church to declare that what they exchanged that day was never, in fact, a valid marriage.
A counsel of hope, not of despair.
Hope, because nearly every one of those cases carried, somewhere in its quiet history, a warning sign the couple themselves never recognised in time. A question that was not asked. A conversation that was avoided. A pressure that was felt but never named. A capacity that was assumed but never confirmed. A pillar already cracked when the vows were spoken.
So a question began to follow me from the tribunal into prayer. What if a couple could see, before the wedding, what a tribunal judge sees only long after? What if you could ask those same questions, and hold those same conversations, while there is still time, freedom, and grace to answer them?
That is what this work is for. Not to discourage marriages, for the Church needs more strong ones, not fewer, but to help you enter the sacrament with your eyes open: your consent free, your capacity sound, your intention right, and your unity real.
The Framework
The Five Pillars of Valid Consent.
Drawn from canon law and from years of reading these cases, each pillar names a dimension of consent the Church requires for a marriage to be valid, joyful, and indissoluble.
- IClarityDo you understand what you are consenting to?
- IIFreedomAre you giving consent without grave external pressure?
- IIICapacityAre you capable of assuming what marriage requires?
- IVIntentionAre you intending the marriage the Church actually offers?
- VUnityAre you and your fiancé(e) truly building one life together?
I write so that every engaged Catholic couple may say "I do" with the freedom, the clarity, and the capacity their vow requires. May the Lord, who instituted marriage and raised it to a sacrament, lead them safely to the altar he has prepared for them. Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam
Now, take the diagnostic.
Five minutes. Twenty questions. The questions a tribunal judge learns to ask, brought before the wedding day while there is still time to answer them well.
Take the Marriage Readiness Diagnostic