“If annulment was so commonly granted as Luther’s modern apologist claims, name an annulment from that era.”
Ummm...Catherine of Aragon’s FIRST marriage to Henry’s brother, making it possible for her to marry Henry VIII in the first place.
I believe Catherine of Aragon testified the marriage had not been consummated. In 6 months. Apparently, Arthur had different ideas of the marriage night than I had, or PERHAPS she lied.
I’ve never heard of a Protestant getting an annulment...I’m certainly not denying it, I just had never heard of it until tonight.
On the Catholic side, a quick internet search turned up this interesting article: http://www.spirituality.org/is/023/page01.asp
In Henry VIII’s case, a strong argument could (and was) made that refusing an annulment would result in civil war, since many held at the time that a woman could not become monarch. Add in Mary’s ancestry and the competing claims to the throne that would follow, and one can see how many people might die from refusing an annulment.
The whole issue was political. If it were merely sex, Henry could have taken as many mistresses as he desired.
That link was interesting, and very typical of the American Catholic church’s attitude regarding annulments. He runs afoul of the Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI in suggesting that the social sciences validate the more widespread granting of annulments. See http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0900437.htm
::Pope Benedict said he agreed with Pope John Paul that too often members of church tribunals see a failed marriage and grant the annulment on the basis of an ill-defined case of “immaturity or psychic weakness.”::
::According to canon law, the validity of a marriage requires that both the man and woman freely and publicly consent to the union and that they have the psychological capacity to assume the obligations of marriage.::
::Pope Benedict said tribunal judges must remember there is a difference between the full maturity and understanding that people should strive to develop over time and “canonical maturity, which is the minimum point of departure for the validity of a marriage.”::
::In addition, he said, granting an annulment on the basis of the “psychic incapacity” of the husband or wife requires that the tribunal establish and document the fact that the person had a serious psychological or psychiatric problem at the time the wedding was celebrated.::
>> That link was interesting, and very typical of the American Catholic church’s attitude regarding annulments. He runs afoul of the Popes <<
In this context, I should carefully note that I do not mean to dismiss out of hand the article’s reasonability, or make it sound like I am declaring that priest a heretic. The diminished capacity for a moral decision and the popular culture’s notion of marriage as being an evanescent state do make for a very difficult environment for godly marriages to occur. I side with Benedict and not merely out of deference, but I believe Benedict was speaking out precisely because he felt the need for some higher guidance in untangling this moral knot. I hope the priest you pointed to takes his correction well, and do not mean to imply he will not.