14 replies to this topic

[Lil Red]

From the Deacon's Bench

A Rome conference in late April hinted that the Vatican may be moving towards a more restrictive posture on annulments, the procedure in church law for declaring a marriage null and void, which some critics refer to as “Catholic divorce.”
If so, the fallout could have special significance for the United States, home to just 6 percent of the world’s Catholic population but accounting for roughly two-thirds of the 60,000 annulments issued by church courts each year.
The April 26-27 Rome conference focused on canon 1095 of the Code of Canon Law, which allows a marriage to be declared null if one of the parties lacked the ability to consent because of “causes of a psychic nature.” Of the 15 to 20 possible grounds for an annulment in church law, more are granted on the basis of canon 1095 than all others combined, roughly two-thirds of the total.
As a result, some wags have dubbed canon 1095 the “loose canon.”
Over the centuries, church courts typically interpreted the capacity to consent fairly narrowly – as long as someone was of age, not coerced and not clearly insane, they were presumed to be capable. Yet as divorce has become more common, there’s often a powerful pastoral drive to find grounds for an annulment, given that a Catholic whose marriage breaks up can’t get remarried in the church without one, and if they remarry under civil law, they’re excluded from the sacraments.
Some critics argue that the pastoral desire to help people in difficulty has led to an overly elastic interpretation of canon 1095.

[cmotherofpirl]

It also has a lot to do with people with whom the concept of a lifelong commitment is an utterly foreign notion, and the abysmal state of marriage prep in many areas.

[ardillacid]

Eagerly awaiting Norseman's contribution to this topic :D

[Basilisa Marie]

I'm trying to figure out the reasons why the US has 2/3 of the annulments. It's not like we have a different attitude than Western Europe toward marriage (or do we?). The only thing I can think of is that Europeans either don't bother with a sacramental marriage to begin with, or don't bother with an annulment if they get a divorce, since church attendance is lower in Europe than the States.

[Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye]

I'm trying to figure out the reasons why the US has 2/3 of the annulments. It's not like we have a different attitude than Western Europe toward marriage (or do we?). The only thing I can think of is that Europeans either don't bother with a sacramental marriage to begin with, or don't bother with an annulment if they get a divorce, since church attendance is lower in Europe than the States.

2 words, hippy revolution . The sexual revolution is and was most popular in the u.s. than anywhere else. As far as i'm aware the sexual and drug revolution began in the united states,which is understandable in the sense of ww1 ww2 and than the great depression, the rest of the christiandom was effected in one way or another by these also to varying degrees and probably different disorders of the grave kind. I was talking to a youth at the local skate park about all this and she said to me "well the world just through a party after winning those wars and surviving the great depression." or possibly it's a bit more like post traumatic stress which can coz some really weird behaviour but i also can dig the party thing and if it was just a party than we better get out before midnight or that carriage is going to turn back into a pumpkin and we will have to walk home enebriated and will not be guarenteed of getting home and not being mugged at 3 am. But in that i like more the post traumatic stress and if that is so God knows how that is going to be fixed,which with God can be done in faith with a teaspoon of hope and a dash of love. Why than does not God repair the damage with some spectacular revolution against the revolution that repairs it as fast as the damage was done, possibly has already begun <shrugs> i don't know. But even than after a severe storm the clean up is going to take time even though God could do it in an instant like after an actual severe storm with leaking roofs,tree branches through the window etc the clean up takes time and i suppose teaches us and makes us stronger. Thats just my take on the manner, don't quote me unless you take this to a religious and they agree lol

God bless you all.
Onward christian souls.
Jesus is Lord.

[Norseman82]

Eagerly awaiting Norseman's contribution to this topic :D

You asked for it....you got it:



Seriously, though, I think you have me confused with another single middle-aged puck-slapper, SCG; he's the one who keeps bringing up the "loose canon".

[iheartjp2]

I'm trying to figure out the reasons why the US has 2/3 of the annulments. It's not like we have a different attitude than Western Europe toward marriage (or do we?). The only thing I can think of is that Europeans either don't bother with a sacramental marriage to begin with, or don't bother with an annulment if they get a divorce, since church attendance is lower in Europe than the States.

It very well could be that the things you cited make this so.

It's also worth noting that Western Europe does and always has had a different attitude than that of America toward most things. When people talk about "Western culture", they refer to those of Western Europe and North America, who receives much of its culture from Europe. America did form its own, though, and it's different. So yeah.

[Skinzo]

It's been an issue for a long time, going back to the seventies. Some statistics on annulments, particularly with respect to the USA:
"338 in 1968, to 28,918 in 1974, to a peak of 63,933 in 1991. By 2004 the number had fallen to 46,330, and it fell even further, to 35,009, in 2007–a remarkable decline of 24 percent in three years.
Despite this decline, the United States, with 5.9 percent of the world’s Catholics, still accounts for 60 percent of the Church’s 58,322 declarations of nullity (2007 statistics in the Vatican Secretariat of State’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church)."
http://www.catholicc...cfm?recnum=9607

I feel badly for anyone whose marriage is troubled. But I've known too many Catholics who were not really practicing who married in the Church anyway, and I think this is a big part of the problem. I just wonder how many of those seeking annulments are really practicing Catholics.

S.

[cmotherofpirl]

They are Catholics who want to remarry.

[dairygirl4u2c]

"Petrine and pauline privilege" exceptions = basically divorce with fancy footwork. this doesn't include annullments that amount to divorce.

it's insane to think this kind of stuff, that a person whose spouse left them with no real signs of returning etc, should just stay single for the rest of their life. by far most catholics, even decent ones, would not stay catholic when faced with a rule like this... so why not beat the issue to the punch, or put yourself in their shoes, and stop believing this silliness.

there is something to be said about respecting the nature of marriage and not just proactively seeking divorced etc. i just thought i'd bring up a not on point but related issue.

[Skinzo]

"Petrine and pauline privilege" exceptions = basically divorce with fancy footwork. this doesn't include annullments that amount to divorce.

it's insane to think this kind of stuff, that a person whose spouse left them with no real signs of returning etc, should just stay single for the rest of their life. by far most catholics, even decent ones, would not stay catholic when faced with a rule like this... so why not beat the issue to the punch, or put yourself in their shoes, and stop believing this silliness.

there is something to be said about respecting the nature of marriage and not just proactively seeking divorced etc. i just thought i'd bring up a not on point but related issue.

If you mean that the Pauline privilege is a divorce you are quite wrong. That is a matter of simply dissolving a natural but not sacramental marriage which existed between two non-Christians, one of whom became a Christian afterwards. It is based in the bible as is the Petrine privilege (though that is hardly ever used). Abandonment is not grounds in and of itself for annulment.

S.

[arfink]

I'm trying to figure out the reasons why the US has 2/3 of the annulments. It's not like we have a different attitude than Western Europe toward marriage (or do we?). The only thing I can think of is that Europeans either don't bother with a sacramental marriage to begin with, or don't bother with an annulment if they get a divorce, since church attendance is lower in Europe than the States.

I believe that is has to do with our divorce rate being the highest in the world for the past 100 years or so. Maybe even longer.

Remember that the culture of death began here. It's a miracle we haven't reaped its wages faster than Europe has.

[MissyP89]

Why isn't abandonment grounds for annulment?

What about abuse?

I can make this into a separate thread if the mods want.

[cappie]

Why isn't abandonment grounds for annulment?

What about abuse?

I can make this into a separate thread if the mods want.

An annulment (decree of nullity) is a declaration by the Church that a marriage is not considered binding for life. This does not mean that the parties are free of the continuing obligations of the union such as the welfare of children. An annulment does not deny that there was a wedding ceremony or erase the relationship that existed. Nor does it make any comment on any moral fault in the parties. Rather, a decree of nullity is a declaration by the Church that, at the time the couple attempted to exchange wedding vows, an essential element was lacking in the consent of at least one of them and thus the union which followed such a consent is not considered to be an obstacle to either party remarrying in the Catholic Church.

In other words the grounds are antecedent to the marriage, not subsequent to the marriage. Although some of the things mentioned may have had there genesis in behaviour existing before the marriage.

[tinytherese]

To think that back in the day, you had to proove that your spouse was abusive and or cheating on you in order to get a divorce. I remember reading about people who wanted to leave each other providing false evidence of abuse and cheating so that they could get a divorce.

Now we have no-fault divorce and not surprisingly anybody can get one in this country. At my university, I met an international student from The Ivory Coast who said that lots of people that are Catholic get married by a justice of the peace because they are afraid that they might want to split up, so they can easily get a divorce from the state instead of attempt to get an annulment from the Church. Honestly, people need to walk in to marriage with the mindset that divorce is not the backup plan, that the only option is staying married.