[sinkspur]

Assuming you are accurate, doesn't that represent a de facto crisis?

No. As Hermann has deftly pointed out, over 60% of the annulments involve NON-CATHOLICS who are looking to join the Church. In the vast majority of THOSE cases, the non-Catholics do not have the same view of the indissolubility of marriage as Catholics do. IOW, "'til death do us part" does not necessarily mean the same thing to certain Baptists, or non-Christians (whose civil marriages must also be annulled), as it does to Catholics.

My reference was to "inability to contract a Christian marriage" which is a ground for annulment, approved by the Roman Rota. Every marriage case I ever acted on as advocate (and I'd estimate that number is between 70-80) was accepted, and an annulment was granted.

I also helped my father-in-law secure an annulment from my now dead mother-in-law, who physically beat him with pots and pans, for nearly 20 years. He stayed with her that long for the sake of his children, and has been married to a wonderful woman, in the Church, for 15 years.

Every Catholic ought to have to listen to some of these cases before pronouncing judgement on whether or not the Church is being too loose with annulments.

[narses]

So the 40% (assuming that Vere's data is even close to accurate) that are Catholic on Catholic annulments don't represent a crisis? Since you haven't sat in on those, is your view even germane? My anectdotal evidence is that every annulment I've heard of has been Catholic on Catholic, and most are serial marraiges. Ine every case, when I know the parties well enough to ask, they assure me the priests involved have given them assurance that annulments are easy to get and their civil divorce is no impediment.