This is a topic which can be very sensitive for those involved and about which there is a great deal of misunderstanding. Some of the main misunderstandings involve (1) how the process works and (2) what are some possible impediments which prevent a valid marriage. In short: annulments are not "Catholic divorce", there is a tribunal who evaluates each case, a civil divorce must precede the process, and Canon 1083 (et seq.) are some specific direct impediments which prevent a marriage from being formed in the first place.
Oh, and FYI...if you are Catholic (i.e., you never renounced the faith...like I was) and married outside the Church without the Church's permission (as I did), you do not have a sacramental marriage. The two ways of rectifying this situation are (1) convalidation or (2) sanatio in radice (which is what I obtained through my bishop, and may be used when one party refuses to convalidate).
But that's a bit off-topic. Here's the audio:
Annulments - 60 min. discussion and live call-in program.
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"Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ."
Rom 10:17(DRV)
The wife and I just had our Marriage convalidated in June
Congratulations! Excellent news!
Annulments are Catholic Divorce in spite of the lies from the Catholic Church.
I am a former Catholic as a result of my experiences with the Tribunal system.
I know exactly what I am taking about from cruel experience.
Karl
I understand de jure the difference between a divorce and a declaration that there was never a sacramental marriage. However, when almost every Catholic who gets a divorce and applies for an annulment is granted one, then I think it is safe to call it a de facto Catholic divorce. The sharp rise in annulments from a few hundred per year in the 1960s to close to 60,000 per year by the 1990s is not solely the result of living in a secular pro-divorce and pro-abortion culture. The pro-divorce culture has infected and metastasized within the Catholic hierarchy, diocesan tribunals and seeped into the spirtual direction given by priests. I also do not think the psychological experts have offered us a deeper insight into human nature and suddenly discovered that people have mental and personality disorders. You may recall that melancholy and cholic temperments were well discussed by more than a few saints.
The end effect of the active promotion of annulments by advertising them as "healing" in diocesan newspapers, the wide scale denial of respondent's procedural rights by tribunals, and granting an annulment to virtually every petitioner who asks for one has transformed annulments into de facto Catholic Divorces. These abuses are very well documented in Robert Vasoli's "What God Has Joined Together; The Annulment Crisis in American Catholicism" and described in Sheila Kennedy's "Stolen Vows". I am also personally and painfully aware of the abuses inflicted upon faithful spouses by these tribunals.
Andrew