Posted on 10/15/2004 8:58:28 AM PDT by johniegrad
I tried to read the original at the source and could not find it either.
"Where in the Bible does God reveal that annulment is acceptable?"
It doesn't.
NO WHERE!
That's why Catholic often give you distasteful remarks that actually shows their true colors when confronted. It's a scam for money and allows them to day they do NOT "divorce" people - LOL! It's the same thing with a different label.
In a three year span, every single word of the Bible is spoken at Mass. Your ignorance is disgusting.
Where does it state that abortion is wrong?
Why not? After all, the cross you speak of in that heinous display was a CATHOLIC CRUCIFIX.
Think before you post.
"he annulled his first marriage, even though he had children from that marriage? i know people (mainly wealthy men) do this, i just don't understand how the Catholic Church allows it..."
Guess it depends on how large a donation the person wanting an anullment gives to certain catholic churches (?)
"Where in the Bible does God reveal that annulment is acceptable?"
You didn't answer my question.
I was simply addressing the issue of Kerry, potentially being married to two women at the same time.
See, according to the state, he wan't (he got the divorce first, then got re-married)
According to the Church he wasn't (he was still married to his first wife at the time and thus simply shacking up with Teresa, so he is a sinner)
I have been mystified for years as to how the Catholic Church recognizes the dissolution of marriages many years old, with the issuance of children, and yet decree that "no marriage took place".
Problematically, the Catholic Church is currently recognizing "no fault" mechanisms for the declaration that no marriage took place. For example, if I didn't believe at the time I got married that my marriage would presuppose marital fidelity, then, no marriage took place....pretty thin rationalization, if you ask me.
It doesn't. There also isn't anything that says abortion is wrong. It doesn't say that slavery is wrong. There's nothing in it about altar calls or Reformations or embryonic stem cells, either.
Perhaps your faith is "Biblical", but it's certainly not complete.
"Perhaps your faith is "Biblical", but it's certainly not
complete."
I haven't mentioned one word about my faith. What would cause you to make a comment like that?
That's what I thought.
"that's what I thought"
You are making no sense. Please don't be cryptic.
Why would you state that my faith wasn't complete?
Let's not forget the entirely "otherly-Gospel-like" Catholic Crusades which only managed to spare the entire continent of Europe from being under the thumb of Sharia since the 11th century. Better yet, the un-acceptance (followed by the acceptance) of Galileo's theory of the sun as the center of the universe which, as most Catholic-haters would like to say, is proof that the Church is bad, yet cannot state on what Biblical grounds they would speak differently of Galileo's theory at that point in time.
Without Reason, you've put God in a lockbox. Thomas Aquinas wrote his masterpiece on the Catholic faith based on a combination of scripture and reason. When someone makes a stupid, imbecilic comment like "[Catholicism] is illogical and from another Gospel", I guarantee you someone like me is going to come along and set them straight.
The reasoning behind anullment is that a marital commitment did not exist when the vows were made. I could be a philandering bisexual who can father ten kids in the next twenty years, and at the same time regard my wife as a spiritually unequal piece of meat, separate in God's eyes instead of united as a reflection of Christ's union with the Church. I could be a bigamist. I could marry with the unspoken intent of divorcing my wife when I hit my middle-age crisis. I could marry without intending to be faithful. I could pretend to believe in Christ for the sake of participating in a family-sponsored wedding, have my vows mean nothing when they spill from my lips, and become a Sunday school teacher later in life - but it doesn't make my marriage valid. If there is an ongoing pattern of physical or emotional or verbal abuse, the marriage is stands a good chance of being annulled, with or without kids.
There may not be anything "biblically" chapter-and-verse about annullment but the same can be said for any of the above scenarios with regards to "valid" marriage.
As I understand it, lots of prominent Catholics have been through this process, including several Kennedys. The first marriage can be annulled, even when several children have resulted from it, and the second marriage then be declared valid in the eyes of the Church.
To the non-Catholic, such as myself, the entire process looks like a hypocritical end-run around the no-divorce stance of the Church, as it it time-consuming and expensive and therefore not readily available except to the rich and well-connected.
Those were well written paragraphs, but you dodged the question again. Why do you think my faith is not "complete"?
Answer the question directly, please.
Your faith is not complete if you are not receiving the sanctifying grace of the Sacraments in conjunction with knowing, living, and understanding the Word of God. The Sacraments are based in Scripture and tradition. If one's faith is reliant solely on Scripture, that faith is incomplete.
Please tell me what a sacrament is. Is that communion?
The Church has nothing to gain by granting annullments. Strong families are an important part of the foundation of the Church. Agreeably, there has been abuse of this by politically corrupted clergy, and there have been some flimsy cases to be sure, but it doesn't make the concept an enemy of Christian theology. If the Church decides the marriage didn't exist in the spiritual sense, then it didn't exist. There was a union, but not a marriage.
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