A co-worker of mine was upset by the idea of Catholic annulments.  She said that you had to buy annulments and that if you had enough money, you could buy one, no problem.  Aren't annulments just Catholic divorce?  Doesn't the pope and the bishops have enough money anyway?

Sincerely,

Miss T. Fide

First let me answer the question about the nature of annulments.

Catholics believe that a marriage is an indissoluble bond between a man and a woman.  It lasts “till death do us part.”   A real marriage can never be ended in this life.

However,  marriage is a covenant, and a contract.  A Catholic enters a marriage that is 1) for life, 2) it is exclusive, that is faithful, and 3) you must give your spouse the right to have children.

If I am not free to marry, (for instance I am being forced against my will,) if I am unable to form a valid contract, (for instance I am as nutty as fruitcake) there is no valid contract, no valid covenant, and no unbreakable bond.  The annulment process makes a judgment about the validity of the contract/covenant of marriage.

This is real.  I've seen it often.  Some old coot who is on his fifth wife has to make some important decision so he calls his wife (the first one, the real one).  On the other hand, I've known people who have been married for years and they might as well be on different planets.  (“I talked to Jack the other day.” “Who?”   “Jack, your husband. The man you've lived with these forty years.”  “Oh. How is he?”)  The bond never happened.  It was a lovely wedding, but they weren't married.

A divorce means that they were married and the marriage is over.

An annulment means there was never a marriage in the first place.

Second, the Church takes a lot of trouble to investigate the whole matter.  Las Vegas we’re not.  It takes secretaries and advocates and judges and unfortunately all these people have to eat, as do their dependents.  The annulment itself costs nothing, but, for the sake of justice, these people have to be paid.  If a person cannot pay, these costs will be waived and the Archdiocese will eat the costs.

Third, bishops and the popes are rich anyway.  I wish.  The Vatican budget is about $250 million a year.

The budget of Notre Dame University is much larger than that, and, though I was unable to check it out, I have heard that the budget of Harvard is about ten times that of the Vatican.  Shouldn't Harvard be doing more to help the poor out of its vast resources? 

As a more local point of reference the budget of Skokie, Illinois library, village and parks included, is about $75 million (a bargain for such a lovely town.)  So, the Vatican with all its wealth is really just about worth three (3) Skokies.  I get really tired of all the things people know to be true that aren't.

I will end with a story about annulments, dispensations and Protestantism just for the heck of it.

Philip the Fair, Duke of Hesse, whence come my ancestors, was a great protector of Martin Luther, the  founder of the Protestant Reformation.  Philip the Fair found himself in a pickle.  For purely political reasons (yah, right!) 

He needed to have two wives.  He asked Martin Luther for a dispensation to commit bigamy, which Luther gave him.  Luther had said that the pope had no right to dispense people from the law of God, (a point with which Catholics agree.)  Apparently Luther was more infallible than the pope!

Henry VIII of England left the Catholic Church and founded Anglicanism in order to grant himself an annulment.  After that, he seems to have found it more convenient simply to lop off the heads of his wives and thus “death did them part” from both husband and head.

So, all in all. the Catholic approach is head and shoulders above some others.

I hope, Miss Fide, this leaves you and your friend less mystified.

Rev. Know-It-All