Bringing Back Difficulty to get an Annulment

[otjm]

I am not Catholic, and I feel the way annulments are granted is scandalous. Of course the Catholic Church is the only Christian body that pays any serious attention to the issue.

To be clear, Christ’s teaching on divorce is very hard. I frankly don’t like it. I wish it were not so. But who am I to question our Lord?

Despite the fact that I don’t like it, I have no question at all that forbidding remarriage after divorce is indeed His teaching and I just have to accept it.

I would not pick on you; many who are Catholic have little or no understanding of what a decree of nullity really means.

A decree of nullity is not a divorce. A divorce recognizes that there was a marriage (contract - as that is how civil law recognizes marriage) and breaks the contract, and divorces are only granted by the State.

The Church treats marriage not as a contract, but as a covenant - the two things are not the same; it is a mutual covenant and is permanent to death.

A decree of nullity is a statement by the Church that the couple never formed a sacramental covenant. It does not say anything at all as to whether, in the eyes of the State, a “marriage contract” was formed - that is a State issue, not a Church issue.

And the party requesting a decree of nullity (which in common parlance is called an annulment) has to prove that a mutual covenant was not formed between the parties, as the Church presumes that if the ordinary form were followed, that such a covenant was formed.

I suspect that your feelings are formed an very little understanding of what a decree of nullity actually is, what the rules are, how it is granted, and the fact that most people speaking bout decrees of nullity are in pretty much the same position - very little knowledge. And that includes those who have received a decree. In other words, you are in “good” company.

Christ indeed decreed that one who is divorced may not remarry, and the Church upholds that absolutely. What the Church says is that one may marry if one was not truly married to begin with - which involves, among other things, full mature intent to form a marriage covenant, one that is permanent, exclusive, and open to new life, and not having any other impediments.

If one enters into a ceremony - in front of a deacon, priest, bishop, or the Pope himself, and is not intending a permanent covenant, or an exclusive one, or is not open to children, or has another impediment - no matter whether they simply have a short marriage ceremony, or do it during a high nuptual Mass in the cathedral - then one is not married in the eyes of the Church (the State being a separate issue) and therefore, because they are not married, they may in the future marry. Not marry again, but marry for the first time, because the prior ceremony was effectively a sham; it accomplished nothing. They were not married, so they are not “marrying after a divorce”.

As I noted, a lot of people “don’t get it”. That doesn’t change the matter; it simply means they don’t “get it”.