Anyone have statistics on annulments requested versus annulments granted?

[beehumble]

I read so many comments about how awful the high number of annulments granted is. I have a different viewpoint to put out there. What if we saw the large number of annulments as indicative of the fact that people really DO want to be right with God and the Church and they will go through a very painful process to make that happen?

Many people seeking annulments were likely ill prepared for taking the vows that a sacramental marriage is meant to be. This lack of preparation was a result of society and values changing in recent decades, as well as where the church was (in terms of poor catechesis and marriage prep).

Today those things are being addressed by the church with increased emphasis on marriage prep and improved catechism.
But there is still a current fallout for the many people who were ill prepared for marriage and who now want to make things right after a divorce.

I’m just saying maybe it’s not always about people trying to get away with things like a second marriage (which I hear people say here so often, though not this particular thread) but a sign that people really truly do want to follow God in His Church.

If you look at the Church’s long history, this current divorce/ annulment situation is just a blip in the timeline of the church. Every age has its own issues–both in and out of the Church. This is one of them for our time and future generations will not have this period of reparation any longer (I hope). It will take time to correct this situation and deal with today’s fallout, but it is happening with better teaching now.

The fact that the so-called ‘sexual revolution’ occurred in the 1960s at around the same time that the annulment rate increased seems to confirm what you say. Young poorly catechized Catholics (virtually Catholic in name only and by baptism, just going through the motions of attending Mass and pre-cana and having a marriage in the Church to please the parents and because ‘everybody did it that way’) swept up “in-love” and grooving to movies like The Graduate, rushing to the altar as the in-thing to do to show one’s true love, and then facing the reality of marriage and life-time commitment with someone who was really just a quickly passing crush. But the deed was done.

Then came the divorce once the passing crush faded and the two realized they had nothing in common, not the same goals, hopes, dreams, aspirations for their children, etc etc.

In short, as you say, they married too young and were too immature and ill-prepared to understand what they were doing.

But, again as you say, they do want to try to make things right out of respect for and belief in the Church, now that they have matured (part of that maturity was going through the painful divorce once the reality of the immature mistake they made hit them like a brick in the face, destroying their* The Graduate* illusions and snapping them into reality.)

And yes, again as you say, this is a blip in the history of the Church, and it too will pass.

But the Church, realizing so many youth of the last 4 decades were so ill-prepared for the stark reality of marriage, has worked hard to help many of them become whole again, and also to try to prevent it from continuing.

God bless you.

 

[EvelynEVF]

You know, I also have to wonder how much of the trouble is not immaturity and lack of catechesis, but actual rebellion, at least in this present era where younger folks are hearing the teaching of the Church, but have all these public examples of politicians and others who know but don’t care.

i went to a wedding not that long ago of a couple who knew darn well that living together and premarital sex was against Church teaching, but they had done it (and done/do it on the Pill) for three years. The priest who married them knew it, and chose to gloss over it in preCana. I only went to the wedding because the personal connection that got me invited was not to the bride or groom, and I didn’t want to snub the person who brought me. Did have to skip one once where I was invited by the couple.

I know that couples have a natural right to marry, even if they are in a state of mortal sin, but I still wish more priests had the nerve to acknowledge that and then say, "But if you want me to witness, and you want to do it in this Church building, then here are my conditions. . . "