What God Has Joined Together
The Annulment Crisis in American Catholicism
ISBN13: 9780195107647ISBN10: 0195107640
Hardback,
264 pages
Feb 1998,
In Stock
Price:
$55.00 (06)Description
The recent controversy over Joe Kennedy's annulment gave only a glimpse of American Catholicism's open secret: that contrary to official Catholic doctrine, American churches grant annulments wholesale, freely declaring marriages nonexistent so that one or both partners can remarry in the church.The United States is home to only 6% of the world's Catholics, Robert Vasoli points out, but it now accounts for 75% of all Church annulments, two-thirds of which are granted on ostensibly psychological grounds. The real scandal, though, is not simply the numbers, but that Church marriage courts annul thousands of marriages that are actually valid according to Catholic teaching. Drawing on considerable research, the author details precisely how these courts let divorced Catholics--and many non-Catholics as well--bypass Catholic teaching and law. He shows, for instance, how they often help petitioners manufacture grounds for annulment, which are justified with specious psychological reasoning that are counter to the letter and spirit of canon law. Indeed, it may even be alleged that "lack of emotional maturity" at the time of the wedding can invalidate marriages that have lasted 30 years. The result has been a tidal wave: in 1968, the American church granted fewer than 600 annulments; today it hands out more than 60,000 a year. But Rome has not smiled on the performance of U.S. tribunals: of those psychological annulments appealed to the Roman Rota (the Vatican's highest marriage tribunal), more than 90% are overturned.
This revealing look at annulment weaves painstaking analysis with a wealth of evidence as it illuminates the degree to which the U.S. Church has gone its own way since Vatican II on what constitutes valid marriage.
Features
- Reveals how Catholic marriage courts in the United States help divorced parishioners get around the strict teachings of the Church, often manufacturing specious "psychological" grounds for annulment, such as annuling 30-year-old marriages because of emotional maturity at the time of the wedding
- Argues that annulment has gotten out of control in the U.S. and that Rome is not happy with this trend--and he provides statistical evidence to back his claims
- The author has been interviewed by Time, USA Today, and other publications, and has appeared on "Extra," so he is seen as an expert on the subject
About the Author(s)
Robert Vasoli is a retired Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Notre Dame. He is frequently consulted by the media and by laypersons on the issue of annulment. He lives in South Bend, Indiana.
