Monday morning answers - Who was Kerry's first wife?

Bristol Herald Courier (TN) ^ | 10-25-04 | BY LEE DAVENPORT

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Why have we not heard anything about Sen. John Kerry’s former wife, the mother of his daughters? What can you tell us about her? When divorced, remarried, etc.? - P.S., Lebanon

You probably haven’t heard anything about her because she’s an exceedingly private person.

Kerry married the former Julia Thorne, a Philadelphia heiress, in 1970 in Bay Shore, N.Y. They honeymooned in Jamaica.

As you note, they had two daughters, Alexandra in 1973 and Vanessa in 1976.

The couple separated in 1982 at a time when Thorne was battling a deep depression and contemplating suicide.

"After 14 years as a political wife," she wrote in a book about depression titled "You Are Not Alone," "I associated politics only with anger, fear and loneliness. …

"I could no longer pretend I was of use to my husband or my children. I knew that once I was gone my family and friends would be relieved of the burden of my incompetency."

The couple’s divorce was final in 1988 but was not annulled by the Roman Catholic Church until 1997 – two years after Kerry married Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz, a former United Nations translator and widow of Pennsylvania Sen. H. John Heinz III, a Republican.

Thorne now lives in Bozeman, Mont., with her new husband, architect Richard Charlesworth, and recently completed a course of treatment for cancer.

She’s spurned attempts to get her to talk about her ex-husband.

"Julia does not want to answer questions from the media," a family friend told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle earlier this year. "She hopes her desire for privacy will be respected and honored thoroughly. … She wants to be left alone."

[snip]

[trickyricky]

Well they sure felt like bastards, according to them.
Their father left their mother after having a half dozen kids with her.
He hooked up with some tootsie, and being a very religious man
decided he would do the right thing and have his marriage annulled,
so that he could marry this woman in the so-called "church".
Now I can understand if a marriage has never been consummated,
how the RCC could annul the ritual, but this situation, like Kerry's, is barbaric.

[SuziQ]

Now I can understand if a marriage has never been consummated, how the RCC could annul the ritual, but this situation, like Kerry's, is barbaric.

Therein lies your confusion. Marriage in the Church is not a 'ritual' it is a SACRAMENT. It is there to cement the covenant between husband and wife. If either party is not committed to the covenant, or is not prepared mentally to take on the responsibility, and doesn't live up to his or her vows, that Sacrament is not valid. It doesn't mean that the marriage contract was not legal, and to dissolve it, the couple has to go through a legal procedure, paying for lawyers, etc.

In the Church, there are Canon Law procedures which, through investigation, find out whether or not the Sacrament was valid by interviewing the couple, family members and friends.

I'm sorry your friend felt as he did. Who put that idea in his mind? I don't think it is something a child would come up with on his own. His dad sounds like a real jerk.

[trickyricky]

These weren't children. The old dog did this when they were in their teens and twenties.
I guess should have said "sacramental rite" for the RCC.
Anyway, this hypocrite had a marriage of twenty-some years annulled
so that he could remarry his girlfriend.
He was a very big contributor to his local diocese
which says to me "Money talks and BS walks".
His annulment zipped through lickety split.
I know all the other Christian denominations have their scandals, but I don't know
of many that are institutionalized like the RCC.
Annulments and Indulgences being prime examples.

[SuziQ]

Annulments and Indulgences being prime examples.

I don't know that particular family's history, so I can't say, and neither can you, that he 'bought' his annulment. I'm not going to say there aren't abuses, because I'm sure there are, but they are NOT the norm.

Your comment about indulgences only shows how much you've bought into anti-Catholicism.