What is the difference between a civil annulment and ecclesiastical annulment granted by the Catholic Church?

A civil annulment is different from a religious annulment. Some faiths do not allow a divorced person to marry within the faith; in order to end a marriage and still retain the ability to marry within the faith, some people seek a religious annulment, which states that the marriage never took place within the faith – that it was not a "legal" marriage within the laws of the church, for example.

A religious annulment permits remarriage within the church, but it is not the same as a civil annulment granted by a court. Someone who receives an ecclesiastical annulment alone is not legally divorced.