They annulled a marriage that produced children?
Wow. The Church has changed from when I took religion class. How did they justify that?
Wow. The Church has changed from when I took religion class.
Childbearing has no relationship to the validity of the marital consent. A man could attempt marriage to his sister and have 10 kids by her, but that wouldn't make them married in the eyes of the Church.
Whatever "religion class" you took, you ought to ask for your money back.
Annulments are a sad business--but a big business in the contemporary American Church. It appears that just about any marriage--any length of time, any number of children--can get itself declared "null" on PSYCHOLOGICAL grounds, the idea that one or both parties didn't really go into it with the right sort of mindset. Thomas More is no doubt spinning in his grave.
It's really the same abnegation of values that allowed so many in the Church to justify sexual misconduct by the priests and bishops. But this scandal has many, many defenders, not a few of them here on Free Republic, because so very many American Catholics have gotten caught up in our easy-divorce culture but have felt the need to return to the sacraments. Next thing you know, their first marriage has gone up in smoke, their second (or even third) has been blessed by the Church, and they're back at the altar taking communion.