Are prenuptial agreements forbidden?
The short answer
A prenuptial agreement that anticipates divorce and dividing property invalidates the marriage commitment, because it shows deficient consent that excludes indissolubility. A legitimate exception is an agreement to protect the inheritance of children from a previous marriage.
The Church teaches that marriage is a complete, lifelong and exclusive commitment between a man and a woman free to marry. Any prenuptial agreement anticipating divorce, and dividing property if one occurs, invalidates the commitment, because it indicates deficient consent by one or both parties that excludes the essential property of indissolubility (canon 1056; see CCC 1625-1628, 1639-1640).
A legitimate exception is a prenuptial agreement made to protect the inheritance rights of children from a previous marriage, for example when a widower marries a woman who has never been married.
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