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Such reaasonable thinking will get you in trouble here. The annulment-on-request (AKA "Catholic divorce") scandal seems to differ from so many others these days in that so many genuinely committed Catholics have a vested interest in the legitimacy of the system. But it actually makes a mockery of the gospel teaching on marriage, and plenty of people outside the Church realize that. I know one young woman, for example, whose Catholic ex-husband insisted she go through the annulment paperwork because his new shack-up wanted a big wedding in church. The jilted spouse refused but, of course, the annulment was granted and the wedding was celebrated with all possible pomp. When the former wife found a new man, she insisted she would never go through another marriage ceremony but would just live with her lover and bear his children. "More honest than the Catholic Church," she said to everyone who would listen. Frankly, I think she was right.

It's somewhat like that with the couple I mentioned. The kids turned out okay --- the father drank but always managed to work and support his large family, the mother was always very attractive, kept a perfect home. She said she got tired of cleaning up the vomit from him coming home early in the morning and throwing up in the kitchen and then passing out on the sofa --- she said for some reason finding his false teeth in it one morning was the last straw. She remarried in the Church, he chooses to believe that his first marriage was legitimate, accepts that there was a civil divorce but doesn't accept the annulment. He continued to financially provide for his kids.

If someone is insane or drunk at the time of the wedding then I can see the annulment --- but it seems those would be obvious enough to everyone at that time and the wedding wouldn't happen. A failed marriage shouldn't be reason to say it was never legitimate --- it could have been if both spouses had done their part.

When the former wife found a new man, she insisted she would never go through another marriage ceremony but would just live with her lover and bear his children. "More honest than the Catholic Church," she said to everyone who would listen. Frankly, I think she was right.

Madprof, are we to believe that you ENDORSE this woman's fornication?