Protestants and annulments

  • Thread starter Thread starter Patri
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
My comment was a general one in response to another poster saying Protestant churches follow secular norms.

I wouldn’t begin to try to address how Protestants might handle the annulment of marriages. Many such churches simply don’t have the manpower or structure to deal with such a thing, because they don’t have a large centralized governance unit like Catholics do. Many Protestant churches also don’t see marriage as a sacrament and they might therefore reach a lot of different conclusions on divorce and remarriage.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
My comment was a general one in response to another poster saying Protestant churches follow secular norms.
Click to expand...
Yes I realised that and that is why I asked that person the same question.
Tis_Bearself said:
I wouldn’t begin to try to address how Protestants might handle the annulment of marriages. Many such churches simply don’t have the manpower or structure to deal with such a thing, because they don’t have a large centralized governance unit like Catholics do. Many Protestant churches also don’t see marriage as a sacrament and they might therefore reach a lot of different conclusions on divorce and remarriage.
Click to expand...
That is all good and well but the question still remains. Protestants keep getting bashed (and with all due respect you are a part of this) on how they handle “annulments”. So my question still remains! What will be an acceptable procedure? The question is just "is there an acceptable annulment process within non-Catholic circles? That is all the question is asking?
 
Last edited:
With all due respect, I only commented on the general matter of how Protestants are quick to adopt secular norms.

I am not really interested in suggesting how Protestants might handle their Protestant business. As far as I’m concerned they should convert to Catholicism and then follow the appropriate procedures.
 
MichaelP3 said:
Is there some kind of form of annulment that will be acceptable to you in Non-Catholic circles? And what would be expected from this procedure to make it acceptable?
Click to expand...
Acceptable to whom? The “you” in this sentence is ambiguous.
 
MichaelP3 said:
What will be an acceptable procedure?
Click to expand...
There won’t be one for protestants that the Catholic church will accept because the procedure isn’t the issue. It’s the authority to find marriages null that is the issue. The Catholic church considers all marriages to be valid, and will only investigate to determine if it was null to begin with when asked to. Essentially it is only the bishops that have the authority to make this determination.

Now, hypothetically a particular protestant church might happen to have a rigorous annulment procedure in place. If a protestant were to go through that process, and at a later time was required to have the marriage declared null by the Catholic church (for whatever reason), then the case will still have to go through the Catholic church’s authority. But perhaps all the evidence gathered from the previous procedure would make the later procedure go by much more smoothly.
 
Lifeisbeautiful3 said:
Totally agree. But, that doesn’t address the question of what a Protestant person who is civilly divorced for reasons that might accommodate a decree of nullity in the Catholic Church Should do prior to dating (or if they’re free to date).
Click to expand...
A divorced Protestant would not only not be allowed to marry a Catholic without an annulment, they would not be allowed to date/get romantically involved with a Catholic.
 
Yes, the difficulty is explaining it to them. I know a number of remarried people, very good people but their churches accept remarriage, they see no harm in it. I tried to explain to someone once when I was asked to matchmake, the point was not understood as I have been asked again.
 
I know the Church is okay with annulments, but this is one area where I do not agree with the Church.
What God has joined together cannot be annulled. Or at least that is what I think to be true.
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
I know the Church is okay with annulments, but this is one area where I do not agree with the Church.
What God has joined together cannot be annulled. Or at least that is what I think to be true.
Click to expand...
Annulment doesn’t mean separating what God joined together. It means there was a defect in the marriage when it took place so the people actually were never joined together. A marriage never existed.
 
JoeShlabotnik said:
What God has joined together cannot be annulled
Click to expand...
The Church would agree on that statement. The Church does not annul a marriage.

A decree of nullity is a declaration that no valid marriage occurred. Not that one occurred and the Church is annulling it.
 
That is the official Church line, but I believe some Catholics annulment it to get around the divorce issue. How can a marriage of 20-plus years be annulled?
What God has put together, let no man put asunder. To paraphrase Matthew 19:6.
 
What about Catholics who are married and annulled numerous times over a period of a lifetime?
 
But what about not putting your own personal feelings above the statements of the Church?
 
We all have opinions. For example, the Church is against execution of some criminals. But many Catholics favor capital punishment when it comes to some crimes.
 
Of course we do. But most of us don’t publicly claim that the Church got it wrong and we know better.
 
Patri said:
But do they have some kind of annulment process the Catholic Church would find valid?
Click to expand...
My church (European Reformed tradition) does not.

Technically, we do not even marry people. We bless a union which materialized at the wedding’s civil celebration, when the couple said it understood the civil duties of marriage and signed the registers. So, a marriage ends when the divorce is pronounced by a judge.
 
Over the years, the Church has been a little wishy-washy at times.
When I was a boy, consuming meat on Friday was a big, big sin.
Now it is not.
I do not believe in annulments. You obviously do. So be it.
 
Last edited:
What I believe is that the Church (not me) has the authority to decide these things. Other than that, you have no idea what I personally believe.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top