Why are Annulments so much easier to obtain today???

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chicago** said:
“No fault” divorce
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.No fault divorce, for sure.

What no fault divorce really means is :

“No matter what we said to each other in our wedding vows, either of us can walk away at any time for any reason or no reason.”

It undermines marriage at the root.
 
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JimG:
I think that there are more “null marriages.” If you examine the state and intention of the parties to a marriage, it may be surprising how often you would find one of these factors missing in one or both parties:

–the intention of *fidelity *to the partner for life.
–the intention of openness to new life.
–the intention of permanence of the marriage for life.
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Especially that second reason. How many people do we know who plan to use some form of birth control? (Hint: too many).

John
 
None of the above.

I don’t think annulments are easier to obtain today.
 
I am not sure they are easier to obtain - but I am mighty thankful we have them!
 
I wouldn’t exactly say they are easier to obtain. You have to answer 40 personal questions about your relationship, have 3 witness answer 10 questions about their knowledge of your relationship, then you have to go through a tribunal where there are judges, one who defends the bonds of marriage and the other defends you. I also had 2 seminarians sit in during my tribunal. Then it takes months of review and then they send your case to another diocese to review the matter. In all it took us 2 1/2 years to get our anullments. Not an easy task, but an obtainable one.

Going through and getting my anullment was a big step towards my reverting back to the church. We all make mistakes and marriage surely was one of my biggest mistakes. I was young and foolish and I honestly believe God has forgiven my sins and transgressions for my part. How can anyone say God does not forgive us for making a mistake?
 
I chose that the Church is bending to pressures from society but I’m not sure. Remember that the rich and powerful were able to get annulments in the past, now more people avail themselves of it.

My husband’s annulment took 3 years. I feel guilty about it, because he had been married to his first wife for 18 years and they had 5 kids. But she had dropped out of Church right away, never wanted to take the kids to Mass and said it was all BS. So when she complained bitterly about the Church trying to dissolve the marriage, I wonder why does she care, since she wanted the divorce and thinks the Church is BS?

People get annulments not because they want to divorce but because they want to marry again within the Church. I was a catechumen when I met my husband, and my intention was to become Catholic and go to Mass and told him that. So to keep going to Mass and receive communion he had to do the annulment. A locally popular and hip priest from another parish said oh hell, that doesn’t matter any more, go for it…I was appalled and we waited out the 3 years.

People who get annulments JUST so they can have a church wedding, and then never show up again, now THAT rankles me no end!
 
Two reasons:
  1. People don’t understand what they are supposed to be consenting to when they get married, partly because the Church doesn’t teach them well enough and partly because they somehow mentally separate getting married in a Catholic church building from being married in the Catholic Church, and
  2. The Church has accommodated our “divorce culture” to some extent by not trying as hard to get people whose marriages were originally null to come around to the right understanding of marriage.
BTW-- I’m getting married in January and I plan on never needing or wanting an annullment!
 
Hello Everyone,

Is it my understanding that most on this thread feel that Jesus should have patiently instructed the Jewish leadership of His day to abandon divorce and instead pass out more long psychological assessment forms for anulments?

I am thinking that if the Jewish leaders of Jesus day would have had Jesus carefully explain unulments they certianly would have gladly given up divorce for unulments and avoided Jesus and the Father’s harsh condemnations as the Church teaches Catholics to do.

How did the Jews of Jesus day avoid divorce when they needed an anulment? Can anyone explain annulments at the time of Christ and what the numbers were on Jewish anullments verses Jewish divorces at the time of Christ? Were the numbers of Jewish anulments similiar to today’s Catholic annulments? Was Jesus only talking about Jews who got divorced instead of getting Jewish annulments, in His harsh condemnations?

**NAB MAT 19:3

**The Question of Divorce.
Some Pharisees came up to him and said, to test him, “May a man divorce his wife for any reason whatever?” He replied, “Have you not read that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female and declared, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two shall become as one’? Thus they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, let no man separate what God has joined.”[color=#00000] They said to him, “Then why did Moses command divorce and the promulgation of a divorce decree?” “Because of your stubbornness Moses let you divorce your wives,” he replied; “but at the beginning it was not that way. I now say to you, whoever divorces his wife (lewd conduct is a separate case) and marries another commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” [/color]

NAB MAT 19:16

“Teacher, what good must I do to possess everlasting life?” He answered, “Why do you question me about what is good? There is One who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he asked. Jesus replied, "‘You shall not kill’; ‘You shall not commit adultery’…"
**NAB LUK 16:17 **

“The law and the prophets were in force until John. From his time on, the good news of God’s kingdom has been proclaimed, and people of every sort are forcing their way in. It is easier for the heavens and the earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a letter of the law to pass. Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery. The man who marries a woman divorced from her husband likewise commits adultery.”

**NAB WIS 14:22 **

Then it was not enough for them to err in their knowledge of God; but even though they lived in a great war of ignorance, they called such evils peace. For while they celebrate either childslaying sacrifices or clandestine mysteries, or frenzied carousals in unheard of rites, They no longer safeguard either lives or pure wedlock; but each either waylays and kills his neighbor, or aggrieves him by adultery. And all is confusion-- blood and murder, theft and guile, corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury,…

**NAB MAL 2:16 **

For I hate divorce, says the LORD, the God of Israel, And covering one’s garment with injustice, says the LORD of hosts; You must then safeguard life that is your own, and not break faith. Peace in Christ,
Steven Merten
www.ILOVEYOUGOD.com
 
There has been a great decline in the qualilty of the people who get married. A lot of people who get married are not fit to be married.

There are a large number of people who are selfish, self-centered and who also think they are good candidates for marriage. And they marry someone with the same qualities. This kind of arrangement cannot work.

Marriage requires adults. But many people who get married are permanent adolescents. They just aren’t mature enough. And they never will be. They show their immaturity by demanding sex before marriage and birth control afterwards.

Even if the Church gives these people an annulment, they should not be allow to get married. They simply do not have the vocation.
 
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caroljm36:
I chose that the Church is bending to pressures from society but I’m not sure. Remember that the rich and powerful were able to get annulments in the past, now more people avail themselves of it.

My husband’s annulment took 3 years. I feel guilty about it, because he had been married to his first wife for 18 years and they had 5 kids. But she had dropped out of Church right away, never wanted to take the kids to Mass and said it was all BS. So when she complained bitterly about the Church trying to dissolve the marriage, I wonder why does she care, since she wanted the divorce and thinks the Church is BS?

People get annulments not because they want to divorce but because they want to marry again within the Church. I was a catechumen when I met my husband, and my intention was to become Catholic and go to Mass and told him that. So to keep going to Mass and receive communion he had to do the annulment. A locally popular and hip priest from another parish said oh hell, that doesn’t matter any more, go for it…I was appalled and we waited out the 3 years.

People who get annulments JUST so they can have a church wedding, and then never show up again, now THAT rankles me no end!
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That’s simply not true, although it makes for great urban legend.

I’m sure King Henry VIII for one would have been happy had that actually been the case…
 
No one has yet mentioned the thousands of Catholics who fail to marry before a priest or deacon, i.e. according to the ecclesiatical form. These annulments are no-brainers. The Chancellor of the LaCrosse diocese appeared on Relevant Radio and indicated that of the 30,000 annulments nationwide over a period of years, 18,000 were due to lack of form. Well, I’m not sure on the exact figures but the percentage due to lack of form was pretty high.
Code: 
 I do not want to speculate as to the reasons for the remaining 12,000, except to note that previous posters state that the process is not easy, and that the laity is more educated today about annulments and have greater "opportunities" with the higher divorce rate.
-Illini
 
Illini - Many of the rest are people coming into the Church. Their previous marriage in another community, or by a JP frequently lacked proper preparation and commitment by both parties to marriage as permanent.
 
Annulments are not easier to get today however there are many more marriages that are extremely flawed due to under developed moral lives of those enter into marriage.

God Bless
 
I definitely do not think it is easier to obtain, especially if you live in Asia.

I applied for my annulment 2 years ago. And till today, the Tribunal has not contacted me at all.

I have called them to follow up but they keep giving me the standard reply: We have a lot of cases. These things take time. We just started looking at your case.

According to some friends, an annulment in my country can take as long as 6 years.

In the meantime, I feel so isolated and sidelined, and I grow more disillusioned with the Catholic Church.

There has been no interaction with the tribunal and I feel as if I had been wronged by my ex-husband, and went to the church who has now shunned me and turned its back on me while I stand at the door waiting for help.

Six years is a long time to wait …

😦
 
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