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Again you are woefully uninformed on the church..after a very thorough investigation, an annulment is granted when it can be shown that for a small variety of reasons, the marriage was not valid in the first place....pretty involved procedure.

Scripture makes no such exemption. The only exemption allowed is for adultery and that is not the result of an *invalid* marriage.

The RCC making that exemption is just an excuse.

It allows people to break their marriage vows. Divorce by any other name is still divorce.

Mark 10:2-12 2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

Relabeling divorce so people can justify their sin does nobody any favors whether it is church sanctions it or not.

Matthew 5:17-19 17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Quite the indictment of the Catholic church by Jesus Himself.

Invalid marriage means just that...invalid and scripture probably does make exceptions for it......if you discover that the woman that you married was your sister, adopted from your family at birth, the marriage would be invalid.

you cannot break your marriage vows with someone that you were not able to make them in the first place....you discover that your wife was born a male and later in life had a transexual operation giving him female genetalia.......invalid marriage

it is discovered that your husband was mentally incompetant to make such a commitment.....invalid marriage your wife/husband declares that he/she never intended to have children.....could be invalid marriage it is discovered that one of you is unable, physically or mentally to consumate the marriage....could be invalid marriage

an annulment does not dissolve a marriage, it declares that there was not a valid marriage in the first place...

by the way, it is Protestants, not Catholics that allow remarriage after a legitimate divorce.....not biblical.

Not only that, *illiterate* does not mean *stupid*. Those people had minds they could use and anyone who has to exercise their memory as much as someone who could read does, is going to have an awesome memory. Ever hear of MEMORIZING Scripture

so the average newly formed Christian is going to MEMORIZE scripture....O.K., where does he get the scripture to Memorize???? well lets say he/she is in the world of religious service or academia....he/she has access to Jewish scrolls and has heard of the newly formed Christian groups. He/she meets with them , talks with them, and begins to learn what they believe................you now have what Catholics know as tradition, which you constantly poo-poo!!

I think it is quite disingenuous for Roman Catholics to disparage others as "woefully uninformed on the church" when they discuss the subject of divorce and annulments. Though, on paper, the "rules" seem to be reasonable, we know from practice that these rules are stretched frequently. Case in point, the infamous Ted Kennedy. He was able to get an annulment after his divorce from his first wife, Joan, from whom he had been married for twenty-five years and had four children, on the grounds that, "He never intended to be faithful to his wife."! So, he's the one who wanted an annulment so he could marry his current Catholic wife and it was granted to the very person who was the one guilty of adultery - Teddy. According to http://www.ewtn.com/vexperts/showmessage.asp?number=582101:

In any case, if a Catholic receives an annulment based on some defect of the vows, then they are free to remarry, provided that defect is not going to repeat itself in the new marriage. The Church cannot marry someone knowing they are entering an invalid marriage. So, any Catholic in that situation would have to assure the Church that the reason for the defect in the marriage receiving the Decree of Nullity will not re-occur in the marriage they want to make. That would apply to the Senator and anyone in a similar situation. Presumably that was done.

Is it any wonder why the practice is called "Catholic Divorce"? Apparently, the "pretty involved procedure" is not so much if you have enough money and/or influence.