If anything, the increase of marriage annulments have allow many to return to the faith and practice of the sacraments who otherwise would not e able to do so. This has actually caused an increase in practicing Catholics (at least for those who have been divorced- why would these people want an annulment if not to participate in Church life)? My mother is a good example… Even though she divorced and remarried, she non the less continued attending Church for the around 16 years and denied herself the reception of communion in keeping with Church law. Finally she filed for and eventually received an annulments and was able to happily re marry in the Church and begin to again receive the sacraments. This was a happy day for her (I was my step fathers best man).
I guess some people are so obsessed with legalism and strict religious discipline that they would have denied her this happy moment of reconciliation with god because the modern criteria for annulments was a result of Vatican II and it’s “crimes”. Well I say thank God for the new way of doing annulments which take into account many things which the old laws didn’t and therefore make an annulment a real possibility for Catholics. How many Catholics in the old days were caught in loveless marriages with cruel and abusive spouses? Those who couldn’t take it anymore and got a divorce were excommunicated from the Church. Even if they separated, the possibility of anyone outside of Frank Sinatra or the King of Spain getting an annulment was slim to none. The old rules were so strict that very few could meet the standards so very few bothered to apply. Now things are different, they are for the better.
Alos, New Englanders are loosing the faith because of the massive secularization of their region and the inability and ineptness of the bishops to launch a counter Church crusade for faith. Instead they close every church they feel isn’t “viable” to them.
While I am sure your mother’s annulment was for valid grounds, I have known a number of individuals who told the tribunals facts that may or may not have been skewed. A friend of mine married a man after he received an annulment, because his ex spouse, he claimed, refused to have children. Once married and with a child of their own, th man told my friend he never wanted more than one child and refused sexual relations unless she was on the pill or was sterilized. In the mean time, the former spouse remarried in the Church and had three kids. Eventually, my friend divorced the man. She remains single. Personally, I think my friend should file for an annulment because her husband obviously lied on his annulment application, making her marriage to him null.
Easy annulments make a mockery of those with valid grounds.
VC2 was not the problem. The perversion of VC2 was. All the goofiness and laxity that our progressive bishops and clergy espoused, then passed down to the laity without any real catechesis is a big reason for the fix we’re in today. Kinda like kids playing telephone, the message has become distorted as dioceses continue to do their own thing. We’ve lost our identity, IMHO, as evidenced in the 5-8 people who are baptized on Holy Saturday. I think many of us remember the long lines of the elect when we were young.
We could go in any Catholic Church, anywhere, and follow it. We’d know when to stand, sit and kneel. Now like a bunch of nondescript Christian sects, we have to play follow the front row if we visit another city.
Get the Church back under one leader, all doing the same thing, with WORSHIP being our reason to be, and I think we have a shot of rebuilding. Continue to fail to be unified and consistent, and we continue to shrink.
