H
HabemusFrancis
Guest
I just would like a little bit of feedback on the Catholic teaching on annullments, what they constitute and what exactly they are.
I know that the Catholic Church teaches that divorce is a sin and it does not recognize civil divorce.
I am aware however that annulments are fairly common, and it’s not difficult to get an annullment at all these days (as opposed to the days before the sexual revolution.)
I generally believe the Churche’s teachings on many issues, on this issue I have some doubts.
Is it really true that all the couples who obtained divorces/annullments were living in invalid marraiges (i.e living in sin)? Is it true that not one single one of those marriages constitued a marriage at all?
If one holds to the Catholic faith in it’s entirety, one would have to say “yes”.
I only have doubts about this position because of the reasons people get divorced. Very rarely in the USA is any party coerced into marrying, or unable to understand the sacramental nature of Catholic marriage.
Based on my observations a majority of divorces happen from the emotional immaturity, and inability to cope from the responsibilities or pressures from marraige (which are often severe.)
I view it as a sad thing, but I don’t see how a marraige can “never have occured” when love, children and wedding photographs are clearly displayed.
I often hear of Church leaders thinking of ways to reach out to the divorced/remarried and some have suggested relaxing annullment criteria.
Although I should not jump to conclusions, part of me wonders if the American Catholic annulment process (which is nothing like what it was in 1955 or so) is at some level a desire of the American Church to have it “both ways” on the divorce issue.
That is to officially condemn divorce and say it is wrong, but at the same time allowing many divorced people to remarry and tell them their previous marriage never happened, (while doing so discount the vague possibility that it did in fact happen, but one or both couple lacked the means or wherwithal to make it work so to speak.)
Though I do not know much about this woman or her book, a woman who married into the Kennedy family wrote a novel about the annulment her husband made her go through :
Whether the former Mrs. Kennedy’s marriage was sacramentally invalid or not I do not know, yet she apparently felt wronged by the Boston archdiocese for saying her marriage (which produced two children) was invalid.
I would appreciate thoughts and enlightenment on what I view to be a very complicatd topic.
I know that the Catholic Church teaches that divorce is a sin and it does not recognize civil divorce.
I am aware however that annulments are fairly common, and it’s not difficult to get an annullment at all these days (as opposed to the days before the sexual revolution.)
I generally believe the Churche’s teachings on many issues, on this issue I have some doubts.
Is it really true that all the couples who obtained divorces/annullments were living in invalid marraiges (i.e living in sin)? Is it true that not one single one of those marriages constitued a marriage at all?
If one holds to the Catholic faith in it’s entirety, one would have to say “yes”.
I only have doubts about this position because of the reasons people get divorced. Very rarely in the USA is any party coerced into marrying, or unable to understand the sacramental nature of Catholic marriage.
Based on my observations a majority of divorces happen from the emotional immaturity, and inability to cope from the responsibilities or pressures from marraige (which are often severe.)
I view it as a sad thing, but I don’t see how a marraige can “never have occured” when love, children and wedding photographs are clearly displayed.
I often hear of Church leaders thinking of ways to reach out to the divorced/remarried and some have suggested relaxing annullment criteria.
Although I should not jump to conclusions, part of me wonders if the American Catholic annulment process (which is nothing like what it was in 1955 or so) is at some level a desire of the American Church to have it “both ways” on the divorce issue.
That is to officially condemn divorce and say it is wrong, but at the same time allowing many divorced people to remarry and tell them their previous marriage never happened, (while doing so discount the vague possibility that it did in fact happen, but one or both couple lacked the means or wherwithal to make it work so to speak.)
Though I do not know much about this woman or her book, a woman who married into the Kennedy family wrote a novel about the annulment her husband made her go through :
Whether the former Mrs. Kennedy’s marriage was sacramentally invalid or not I do not know, yet she apparently felt wronged by the Boston archdiocese for saying her marriage (which produced two children) was invalid.
I would appreciate thoughts and enlightenment on what I view to be a very complicatd topic.