Annulments
ANNULMENTS
BASIC R.C. BELIEF An annulment is a declaration of the Church that no marriage bond existed in the first place. An annulment might be given if the partners of the marriage never intended to enter a permanent union, intended never to have children, if one partner substantially deceived the other in relation to the marriage, marriage only to legitimatize a baby, or if a Catholic were to marry without permission (of the Bishop) before a justice of the peace or non-Catholic minister.
An annulment is granted when it can be shown that there were sufficient psychological reasons present at the time of the marriage to prevent one of both parties from entering into the kind of contract with one another which would in fact be sacramental. The emotional disturbance involved need not be completely incapacitating. These two particular people, while they may have been able to contract valid sacramental marriages with the other persons, could not contract them with each other.
From THE QUESTION BOX, Rev. Bertrand Conway, page 332. “In five years (circa. 1925-29), 98 decrees of nullity (annulments) were granted by the Roman Catholic Church.”
POST VATICAN II March 1972. Pope Paul VI’s new law to make marriage annulments for Roman Catholics faster and cheaper took effect today. Under the revised procedure, annulment is expected to take an average of seven months.
Quote from Rev. Dennis Burns, presiding judge of the Boston Roman Catholic diocese on 10/9/75. “The church is granting more annulmments than ever. We used to hear 10-20 cases a year. Now we have heard 160 in Boston alone.
The Canon Law Society of America (CLSA) has charged that proposed revisions in Canon Law will destroy the US marriage annulment system. Almost 2,000 marriage annulments were granted in 1969 under the old canon law system. “If we are forced to work under the new system,” said Rev. Dillon, outgoing CSLA president, “the entire marriage tribunal system in the US would fold. The canonists explained that the new proposed revisions would invalidate the American proceedural norms adopted in 1970. These norms facilitate marriage annulment processes in the U.S. Since adopted, the number of annulments granted in U.S. has risen dramatically. With the repeal of the norms, the amount of red tape would drastically increase and greatly reduce the number of annulments that could be considered, the CSLA explained.
Some modern priests say that since mutual love is necessary for a sacramentally valid marriage, if either party did not love the other at the time of the ceremony, it could be annulled.
SECULAR JOURNALS From TIME, 5/24/76. “Diocesan marriage tribunals have been examining an increasing number of broken marriages, and last year granted almost 10,000 annulments – declarations that a valid marriage never existed. Says Msgr. Marion Justin Renhart, judge of the Brooklyn tribunal, `If two people really cannot live togetgher, there must be a reaosn why not, and it should be up to us to find the reason. If we find it existed at the time of the marriage, then that marriage must be null and void. Nobody must oblige himself to do what he cannot do,'”
CATHOLIC JOURNALS From CATHOLIC VOICE, Oakland, CA (2./1/81). “Pope John Paul II said there had been an alarming increase in marriage cases and warned against `easy and hasty’ annulments. Papal criticisms seemed directed to U.S. church courts which have been responsaible for more than 3/4 of the yearly decreews of nullity (annulments).