Communion for divorced and remarried (Catholics) “closed case,” says cardinal

Catholic News Agency ^ | October 28, 2005

[sitetest]

Dear magisterium,

"That would equal 22,000 annulments (40% of 55,000), which would mean that 22% of Protestant converts (22,000 of 100,000) get annulments..."

Well, not quite. As I said, a lot of Protestants who come into the Church receive two or more annulments of previous marriages. I've known a few. So, maybe that's around 15,000 - 18,000 individuals receiving annulments. That's my "WAG."

So, that's somewhere around 1 of 6 converts needing annulments.

In that about 1 out of 3 or one out of 4 adults in the US is divorced at least once, that wouldn't surprise me at all.

Nonetheless, my numbers are WAGs, and it could very well be that annulments occur in this population at half this rate.

Even so, that'd be a lot of annulments.

Remember that the annulment rate for converts is almost absolutely certain to be higher than for "cradle Catholics." That's because cradle Catholics aren't forced to deal with their divorce issues in the same way as converts. The convert wants something that the divorced cradle Catholic is not asking: admission to Christ's Church. The Church does not grant that request without clearing up problems like previous marriages, etc.

The divorced cradle Catholic, on the other hand, can slide, if he or she so wishes.

"Strictly speaking, the scenario you propose regarding Catholics who enter marriage totally ignorant of the realities..."

Strictly speaking, I wasn't referring to Catholics, but rather to Protestants who eventually convert.

Rather, I'm speaking about Catholics who, during marriage instruction, create and hold mental reservations regarding Catholic teachings about marriage. These folks aren't ignorant. They're fraudulent. A man who privately makes a mental reservation that he's not bound to fidelity in marriage has committed fraud. As well, clearly, his intent is defective, and I believe that could be the grounds of a declaration of nullity.

"In the example you cite, the man who was fooling around and didn't want children would have to provide witnesses or physical testimony (contemporary letters, for example) to back up his claim of defective intention on his part."

Evidence of infidelity that pre-existed the "marriage" and continued straight through, combined with an eventual admission that he never regarded fidelity as binding on him, might be enough.

"In a more general context, merely being somewhat deficient in general Catholic catechesis or not having very much real faith as a Catholic would constitute insufficient grounds, as the Church would say that sufficient grace is supplied to the Catholic couple even in these circumstances."

I certainly agree, but in a society that once supported, in many ways, the Catholic view of marriage, but has become completely hostile in recent times to that view, one should not be surprised that relatively larger numbers of individuals wind up in "marriages" that are more than a little deficient.


sitetest

[magisterium]

Well, neither one of us really knows the convert annulment rate, so we'll just have to agree to disagree on that, I guess.


From my personal observation of things up here in the northeast, anyway (The Capitol of Shaky American Annulments - Boston), the vast majority of decrees granted are to born-Catholics for reasons that often border on trivial. In other parts of the country, I would suppose the convert annulment proportion might be somewhat higher (though I still think it's less than your estimate) on the grounds that, while the northeast leads in annulment rates, it's rather far behind other parts of the country in conversion rates (a double embarrassment!). So there are probably much higher percentages of converts in the annulment pools of other areas.

I think we can both agree that, converts' issues aside, the decree rate for born-Catholics reflects a scandalous swerving away from what Jesus had in mind in Matt. 5:31-32 and Mark 10:2-13. If Benedict can last on the Chair of Peter for a while, say ten years, I believe we will see at least a large correction, if not a total one, getting us back on the right track.

[sitetest]

Dear magisterium,

"I think we can both agree that, converts' issues aside, the decree rate for born-Catholics reflects a scandalous swerving away from what Jesus had in mind in Matt. 5:31-32 and Mark 10:2-13."

On this, I'm agnostic. I just don't know.

I've personally heard of one or two that made me feel a bit squishy, but personally heard of many others that seemed on the up-and-up.

I also know folks who were unable to obtain annulments (some even with good grounds - due to the fact that the process in many places is still quite daunting). I also know of a couple who obtained a decree of nullity due to the tribunal's judgment that the husband, due to psychological issues, had been unable to contract a Catholic marriage. In this case, the tribunal ruled that though the decree of nullity was granted, he was nonetheless not free to contract a Cahtolic marriage in the future.

I wonder whether this, like many of the problems of the Church, varies greatly from diocese to diocese, so that an individual in one place sees an entirely different picture than someone in another place.


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