How the Annulment Process Turned into Catholic Divorce
This Catholic annulment explosion was entirely foreseeable once the hierarchy abandoned Church teaching on the primary purpose of marriage at Vatican II.
The recent appointment of Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, a 39-year-old single lay woman, as the new Prefectress of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication provided me with an excellent opportunity to dive into a topic that needs much more attention: the annulment crisis in the Church.
Her appointment raises the question because she proudly announced that she was “annulled” in multiple interviews prior to her appointment as head of all Vatican communications. She claims she made a “mistake” (getting married) and that the annulment process provided her healing.
In support of her very pro-annulment position, she relies on all the popular post-Vatican II teachings on marriage and the annulment process, which whether she realizes it or not, contributes significantly to turning the annulment process into nothing more than Catholic divorce. I contend there is no significant difference between the post-Vatican II annulment process and no-fault secular divorce.
How can this be if annulments are supposed to be a legal determination that a marriage was never validly contracted in the first place and secular no-fault divorce purports to dissolve a previous valid marriage?
What most people do not realize is that while annulments have always been something available to seek for reasons that would truly invalid a marriage, such as impotence, after Vatican II, the criteria for obtaining an annulment changed. And it changed based on Vatican II’s refusal to uphold Catholic doctrine on the purpose of marriage. Bad doctrine leads to bad canon law, which leads to bad fruit.
Please check out my recently published article at Integrity Magazine where I explain all this.
AI-generated image, published at Integrity Magazine.
Excellent article! I actually completely agree with your assessment and reasoning concerning this issue. Well done!
Back around 2017, I wanted to put my legal talents to use for the Church. To that end, I met with the monsignor, who was the judicial vicar of my diocese. He told me that because the Bishop and his vicar general both had Cannon law degrees that the only place they would really have for me was as a judge on the tribunal. We then discussed what that would look like and how the annulment process worked. When I tried to pin him down on specifics, he explained the important part to the Vatican was that there was a 94% approval rate.