I am currently going through the annullment process. For me it is "easy" because I married a divorced Catholic against the advice of several people including a priest. We were married by a Justice of the Peace so it is about Canonical form. (ah, to be young and stupid)
His (my ex) first marriage was in the Church, his other three were in front of JPs. While he says he doesn't have a problem with the annullment per say... all other statements he makes say that he does. His complaint is that "they are suppose to be about forgiveness and people make mistakes". He has this warped idea that annullment makes children from the marriages illegitimate. Even ours.... As a bonus, my annullment should be final on what would have been our 25th.
OTOH, I know a non-Catholic who has been married three times, all by ministers.
The appearance to the casual observer is that non-Catholic clergy take the sacrament of marriage less seriously.
The thing that people really, really overlook is marriage is not a sacrament with the Catholic Church but a covenant between a man and a woman. Not a contract to be broken or renegotiated. Since we live in a society of disposables, marriage becomes another disposable commodity easily cast aside at the first sign of discontent.
Didn't you mean the opposite? It is a sacrament, and that makes it a covenant between the spouses and God, rather than a contract of two people.
** but a covenant between a man and a woman.**
and put God into that mix too!