(Ron) Catholic divorce

Brian Dean bridean@worldnet.att.net
Sat, 2 May 1998 10:15:20 -0400 (00894140120, 19980502140358.AAA22133@briandea) 


>PETER

>

>I feel there is a very good reason for the church to allow annulments. 

>Pragmatics.  I know that when my wife was 'unoficially excommunicated,'

>prior to being granted an annullment, she was much less inclined to

>attend and contribute.  In the United States today, there are often no

>overriding economic reasons to continue a marriage that is no longer

>made in heaven, evidently.  This, IMO, contirbutes to a strong divorce

>rate.  The church recognizes that if 50% of marriages end in divorce,

>Catholics are going to be caught up in thosee numbers as well.  If they

>are all forbidden to remarry, the church is condemning large segments 

of

>its membership to celebacy or sin.  Even priests seem to have

>difficulties with celibacy; recognizing this, the church has made, and

>will continue to make, annullment a matter of swearing that, though it

>was thought so in the beginning, God didn't really join the partners, 

so

>it wasn't really a marriage.

>

RON
  This is a fact of life. I never considered the possibility that there 
are also more invalid marriages. Good point. It is also true that in 
many cases it is simply a Catholic divorce and not an annulment.