>> 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.
The discussion of annulment reminds me of my Dad’s divorce. I hope you will both forgive me for sharing it - it involves both pain and, to me, a certain humor.
After my Dad’s death in Vietnam, we kids were shocked to find out he had been previously married. My Mom wouldn’t discuss the details - she sent us to our aunts.
Apparently, they grew up together, and became engaged while my Dad was overseas in WW2. On his return, they married.
A few weeks later, she left him. She refused to be reconciled, and after 3 months, my Dad filed for divorce. Not long after, she married another man (whom she had met while my Dad was overseas), and they stayed married the rest of their lives.
A couple of years later, my Dad met and married my Mom. They remained married until his death in a helicopter crash in 1972.
It involves pain. My Dad never spoke to his first wife or of her again. Except to close family members, he wouldn’t admit a previous marriage, and he wouldn’t allow it mentioned in front of his kids. It was a source of great bitterness to him.
But there is an element of humor. All the aunts agreed - and some of them knew the woman well for many years afterward - on WHY she left him. To her dying day, she maintained she left him because “As long as he had ketchup, that man was content to eat hamburger every night! What kind of man can eat a hamburger every night and not complain?”
Of course, anyone who knew my Dad knew that he wouldn’t complain about ANY meal, as long as there was ketchup available. If he liked the food, he added ketchup. If he didn’t like it, he added a LOT of ketchup.
But he didn’t complain...
THAT might have been a marriage that was meant for annulment.