Annulment in America

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A friend of mine's wife left him about a year ago. They were divorced, and she is applying for an anullment.

On the face of it, it's about the weakest case imaginable for an anullment. They were married in their mid 20's, not at 17. They dated for 4 years before marrying, not 4 days. They were married for 13 years and have one child.

My friend doesn't particularly want an anullment, mainly because he thinks that granting one would beggar common sense. However, he is of the opinion that in the U.S., anullments are granted virtually automatically for anyone who pays the application fee. He says that in other countries that's not the case, but in the US it is, and that Rome disapproves of this.

His ex-wife is attempting to gain an anullment on the grounds of duress. When they were engaged, the wedding date was continually pushed back at the urging of her mother. Finally my friend said that they would either get married on the next scheduled date, or not at all. That if it were postponed one more time the engagement would be off.

Her claim now that this constituted duress seems to send common sense even further into the void. How can you force one to marry you by threatening NOT to marry them? It makes no sense. Furthermore, the advice to set a firm deadline and stick to it was given to my friend by his own Catholic Priest, who would obviously never advise him to use duress.

My questions are these: 1) Is it really true in the US that anullments are virtually automatic, or is my friend just being overly cynical or pessimistic?

2) If he wanted to resist an anullment, what steps could he take?

3) Based only on what I've said here (because obviously there *could* be something important I've left out), is this really as absurd a case as I think it is? Having known them both for 20 years, I think that granting an anullment in this case would be a pretty outrageous abuse of the system.

-- Graeme Cree (graemecree@aol.com), March 10, 2001

Answers

Response to Anullment in America

Jmj

Hello, Graeme.
I understand how you and your friend feel and I admire your concern. It is good that we should not lose hope that a married couple who separate -- and even a couple who divorce -- may be reunited one day.

Yes, going through the "Nullity" process is trying for both partners, especially for one who opposes it. But that cloud has two "silver linings" that should make each of us feel much better than we would under other circumstances:
1. The party seeking the Decree of Nullity didn't have to seek it. In this case, the woman could have just gone ahead and entered an invalid union. In my opinion, we should assume the best about her intentions and then thank God that she did not take the easy way out and live in adultery.
2. Church courts (diocesan marriage tribunals) consist of people (priests and/or deacons and/or laity) who get special training (e.g., in Rome or -- in the case of the U.S. -- at the Catholic University of America), reviewing many past cases, studying Canon Law, etc.. Because of the judges' education, helped by their prayer and ours (invoking the Holy Spirit's aid), we should be confident that very few people who seek a Decree of Nullity can fool the Church with spurious grounds.

It is true that a tribunal's work is not protected by the charism of infallibility. Therefore, a rare mistake (caused by prejudice, deception, or some other cause) may happen. The chance of an error is decreased by the fact that every decision of one diocese's tribunal is automatically given an appellate review by another diocese's tribunal. If two different findings are made, the case is referred to a higher Church court.

The Church is constantly trying to better prepare tribunals, so that the errors may be decreased. This has especially been true since the Vatican voiced concern about the rising numbers of Decrees of Nullity in the U.S.. Though the nation has fewer than 20% of the world's Catholics, it has much more than 50% of the world's Nullity decrees each year.

As I recall, at least one notably orthodox cardinal archbishop in the U.S. spoke up in defense of U.S. tribunals, stating that most of them had done an extremely fine job and asking the Vatican to study the special circumstances existing in the U.S. that help to explain the large number of Nullity decrees. I recall reading, for example, that more than half of all decrees in the U.S. are not made with respect to broken-up Catholic couples, but rather with respect to broken-up Protestant couples, one of whom now wants to marry a Catholic. This surprises most people greatly, but it should not. The U.S. is about 77% non-Catholic (Protestant, Jewish, etc.), and, compare to the rest of the world, there is an unusually great number of couples seeking to enter interfaith marriages (Catholic/non-Catholic) and marriages between cradle Catholics and converts here. If two non-Catholics had entered into a "union" without certain requisite beliefs, abilities, and intentions, they did not celebrate the Catholic Sacrament of Marriage, and thus the tribunal must declare the putative marriage "null." This situation accounts, in part for the large number of Nullity decrees in the U.S..

I am not going to defend the Decree-of-Nullity process in the U.S. as flawless. As I mentioned earlier, human error can occur, even in the appellate process. More troubling, though, is the possible spiritual corruption of some judges or entire tribunals -- folks who live in those several dioceses wherein the bishops appear to be dissenters, there is a loss of the true Catholic faith in seminaries, etc.. The weeds grow up alongside the wheat. We are all weak and all sinners. We have to expect at least a small number of problems in a nation that has about 300 dioceses. I hope that you and your friend live in one of the many dioceses in which the tribunals are trustworthy.

Graeme, you asked:
"Is it really true in the U.S. that anullments are virtually automatic, or is my friend just being overly cynical or pessimistic?"
Only the Vatican can give you a definitive answer. This is not a matter of public record. To protect privacy, the Church never reveals the cases that have been filed and reveals decisions made only in rare situations. (The couple involved, however, are free to reveal experiences during or after the process.) In years of reading about this subject, I have never seen any statistics (i.e., percentages), so I gather that the Church does not publish them. My fallible impression is that more than half of all petitions in the U.S. result in a Decree of Nullity. I vaguely recall reading that a tribunal member once revealed that people who think that the process is "virtually automatic" in favor of nullity would be surprised to learn how large is the number of petitions that are declined.

You also asked:
"If [my friend] wanted to resist an anullment, what steps could he take?"
If his "ex-wife" gave his home address to her pastor, he will soon be contacted by the Church, because he has the right to present evidence to the tribunal. He can do his best to convince the tribunal that the marriage was valid. He should contact the tribunal if he has any reason to believe that they are unable to contact him (e.g., that he has kept his address hidden from his "ex-wife.").

You asked finally:
"Based only on what I've said here (because obviously there *could* be something important I've left out), is this really as absurd a case as I think it is?"
I'm trying to be an objective outsider about this. As you said, there "could be something" you've left out. That could be something you know (but have forgotten), something that only the woman knows, or something that the former spouses knew (but the man has forgotten) -- about the situation that existed on the day of the wedding ceremony. I must admit to you that, just based on the facts you have given, I would not be shocked to learn that a Decree of Nullity had been issued. It seems to me that it could go either way. I think that a lot will depend on (1) whether or not the woman agreed with her mother that the wedding should be delayed because she was not yet ready to give consent and (2) whether or not there are other, hidden circumstances that will be revealed to the tribunal.

I recommend that you and your friend, to promote peace of mind/heart and to discourage cynicism, make a firm Act (Prayer) of Trust in God's ability to guide the Church toward doing his will -- deciding here and now to accept the tribunal's decision in either direction and making plans to move on with life, putting this matter behind you.

St. James, pray for us.
God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jgecik@desc.dla.mil), March 11, 2001.


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