It is as if we have to pretend with so many people we know to have been not been validly married before when the Novus Ordo issued annulments on shaky grounds. It is a point of contention even among traditionalists as well.

One time several years ago, I was eating out with some people from the SSPX chapel, and I broached the subject, not knowing some of those at the table had such situations. They did not look happy when I brought it up.

It seems odd, as maybe someone may have said here or somewhere else online, that those who knew each other in such an intimate way can also be later on intimate with others under the auspices of apparent legality.

I have said this on a couple occasions. It is very commonplace today, but nevertheless VERY unnatural, that you could go for a walk, a trip to town, etc. and encounter another person who knows you intimately besides your current wife. This should never be the case. Widows and widowers have no one living who could cause drama, "get back into their life", interfere with their current life/relationship, cause drama with the kids, etc. Even if the widow/widower got remarried, there is still only "the current spouse" and no one else.

Furthermore, widows/widowers remarrying is natural, whereas divorced persons remarrying is not. Children have no reason to be resentful of their mother or father getting remarried -- unless the spouse was murdered by the surviving spouse! If the children wanted to complain, they'd have to complain to God, who is the Sole Author of life and death.

But divorce is a fundamental rejection of a person, a person THEY chose, and a person they chose to raise a family with. The children are 50% that spouse, so it rings hollow that your dad loves you, when he hates your mother (enough to leave her), even though you have a LOT of her physical/personality traits. It makes the children feel rejected as well. Even if the father didn't "hate" the mother, but only preferred someone more fun -- that would still reflect on the children. The children are probably planners, responsible, cautious, introverts, etc. like their mother -- so again, the father is subtly rejecting both his mother AND his children. And of course all this applies if the woman chose to leave as well.

All the technicalities, all the legalities, all the excuses for why "I should be able to get an annulment" all boil down to: No, you shouldn't, because then you would be able to do something unnatural.