Pete Vere and Jacqui Rapp, both experienced canon lawyers, have managed to write a positive book on what most would think a negative subject: annulment.
But the word “annulment,” Vere and Rapp point out in Annulment: 100 Questions and Answers for Catholics, is a misnomer, for “the Church does not annul marriages; she declares them to be invalid.”
“A declaration of invalidity is a statement of fact issued by the Catholic Church,” they write. “After carefully examining a couple’s broken relationship, the Church states that a marriage, as the Church defines marriage, never truly existed between them. The relationship may have enjoyed some of the external trappings of marriage: There may have been a big wedding followed by a common address and the birth of children. However, not all weddings bring about a marriage.”
And to understand this, one needs to understand what a marriage is in the eyes of the Church. Vere and Rapp, in the first half of the book, explore the teaching of the Church on marriage. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, they write, the Church viewed marriage more as a contract but after the Council, the Church understood marriage more as a covenant between a man and a woman, the goal of which is twofold: “the mutual welfare of the spouses (physical, emotional and spiritual) as well as openness to the procreation, welfare and education of children.”
Vere and Rapp also include a good discussion of how marriages should be prepared for and what a couple should do if their preparation lacks orthodox teaching.
Following this are chapters on impediments to marriage, questions about consent, and then two more chapters that examine the nitty-gritty of the annulment process. These are, for a layman, the hardest chapters to read because of all the technical terms involved, but the authors intersperse the legalese with stories of annulment cases, and these stories enliven the discussion, linking the legal terms and roles with real people.
At times, however, the authors trivialize the subject matter by attempts at humor that miss the mark. I, for one, found this distasteful, having grown up in a divorced household with a single mother.
Though it was outside the scope of the book, a brief discussion of the abuse of the annulment process in dioceses in the United States would also have been welcomed.
The authors end their book with a solid chapter on keeping your marriage together. They seem to me to be wise and true: Pray together, eat together, talk together, be kind, work with your differences, play together, hold hands, and practice Natural Family Planning.
All of which is common sense but hard to remember in what Vere and Rapp rightly call “today’s anti-family culture.”
Franklin Freeman writes from Saco, Maine.
Annulment: 100 Questions and Answers for Catholics
By Pete Vere and Jacqui Rapp
Servant Books, 2009
118 pages, $11.99
To order: Servantbooks.org
Comments
Post a Comment
“a brief discussion of the abuse of the annulment process in dioceses in the United States would also have been welcomed.”
Perhaps the authors don’t believe there is “abuse” or that tribunals are “annullment factories.”
I’m familiar with Peter Vere’s take on this, and unless he has changed his mind, he really does believe that there is a serious problem with invalid marriages in the US. I have to agree - the vast majority of couples coming to the sacrament are living together and contracept. How are people like that able to consent to a Catholic, sacramental, marriage? When they are living in a way that indicates they don’t believe in it?
The problem is that priests can’t and won’t say no to engaged couples seeking the sacrament of marriage, no matter what.
Also, there are many reasons that American Catholics have higher rates of annulment declarations that those in other countries. When compared with some other countries, American Catholics get married in the Church (even though they perhaps shouldn’t) at higher rates. They also seek divorce, and then annulment at higher rates, while in some other countries, the couple just separates and begins new lives with others, outside the Church.
Not a fan of Pete Vere.
He does not care for real people.
Read Bob Vasoli’s book on annulment for an understanding of abuse of nullity. Then, join
Bai MacFarlanes Yahoo group to hear first hand stories. Go read her Marysadvocates website.
My own saga is ongoing more than twenty years. Was the basis for my leaving the
Church.
If you want a REAL and honest story, Bai can put you in touch with me. But I have no
time for mere curiosity. I want people to understand how wrong what is going on,
In some cases, is and that the Church refuses to hold to account its own who have
knowingly and/or carelessly destroyed livies, in an ongoing basis.
I thank God that the Catholic Church granted me my annulments. I have been married, divorced, and annulled three times. That could be a record. I was married and divorced twice before I became a Catholic and once after my conversion. I think that we need to be more understanding and compassionate to those who have married outside of the Catholic faith when considering the annulment process. They don’t have the benefit of Catholic teachings to fall back on when their marriages are in trouble.
In my case, my marriages were not sacramental - they were abusive. I say that my “man-picker” is defective, haha!
I have no desire to re-marry, but with the Church’s blessing, I am free. Thanks be to God for our Catholic faith.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.