Please don't peddle this crap. RFK, Jr. might be a Grade A #1 A$$, but contrary to popular opinion, folks don't 'pay off the Church' to get an annulment. Every annulment costs money in administrative time and paperwork, so money DOES change hands. It is no different than paying a lawyer, when couples are getting a divorce. Do we consider that cost "paying off the State"? Considering how the Kennedy men view marriage, I'm guessing it wasn't hard to prove that he had no intention of making a lifelong commitment.
As for the seeming continual claim that annulment makes the children of the marriage 'bastards', this is absurd on its face. An annulment simply states that the SACRAMENT of Matrimony wasn't valid, so that union didn't exist in a SACRAMENTAL manner. The idea of a child being a 'bastard' comes from the LEGAL condition of marriage. Do children become 'bastards' when the LEGAL marriage contract is broken? If not, then annulment has nothing to do with the LEGAL condition of children, vis a vis their parents.
THANKS FOR THAT!
I'm unfamiliar with this. Can you elaborate?
“Please don’t peddle this crap. RFK, Jr. might be a Grade A #1 A$$, but contrary to popular opinion, folks don’t ‘pay off the Church’ to get an annulment”
You need to get real. I’m catholic and happy to be one but the truth is that if you have enough influence and cash you can get an annullment. RFK jr. managed to get the church to annul his 13 year marriage over the strenuous objections of his wife. I guess she felt like the marriage was valid all along.
Annullment in the catholic church basically says the marriage was never valid in the first place. There are four or five reasons you can use. Getting bored with wife #1 and wanting a younger model is not on the list. So for all intents and purposes that would make his kids illegitimate.