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).

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