related: Pope Francis should support abandoned spouses of Catholic marriages

I remember when Vincente Fox, the then president of Mexico made a state visit to the Vatican and met with Pope John Paul II and asked him about his annulment situation. His Holiness replied that the Church does not do annulments for heads of state. He also recommended an attempt at reconciliation.

Quote from: poche

I remember when Vincente Fox, the then president of Mexico made a state visit to the Vatican and met with Pope John Paul II and asked him about his annulment situation. His Holiness replied that the Church does not do annulments for heads of state. He also recommended an attempt at reconciliation.

That's interesting. Do you have any sources backing up your statements? thanks

I don't have any internet sources. I only have my memory. I remember that Vincente Fox was a divorced man when he was elected to the presidency. At that time the Church was attempting a reconciliation but he filed for an annulment. While he was president he civilly married his then girlfriend, Marta Sahagun, another divorce. It was publicly announced over the Spanish language media that Marta Sahagun got her annulment first. Then after his presidential term was over Vincente's annulment went through. Then after the annulments for both parties went through they were married in a religious ceremony. These are the events as I recall them.

Quote from: Geremia

Quote from: poche

I remember when Vincente Fox, the then president of Mexico made a state visit to the Vatican and met with Pope John Paul II and asked him about his annulment situation. His Holiness replied that the Church does not do annulments for heads of state. He also recommended an attempt at reconciliation.

That's interesting. Do you have any sources backing up your statements? thanks

I don't have any internet sources. I only have my memory. I remember that Vincente Fox was a divorced man when he was elected to the presidency. At that time the Church was attempting a reconciliation but he filed for an annulment. While he was president he civilly married his then girlfriend, Marta Sahagun, another divorce. It was publicly announced over the Spanish language media that Marta Sahagun got her annulment first. Then after his presidential term was over Vincente's annulment went through. Then after the annulments for both parties went through they were married in a religious ceremony. These are the events as I recall them.

Though there does not seem to be any real confirmation that Wojtyla was actually involved (at least I could not find any) and all such suggestions seem to be based on rumors, the historical facts do indicate that the Vatican would not grant an annulment while Fox was president of Mexico.  However, the annulment was approved very quickly after Fox's term of office was complete.

There is no evidence, or even suggestion, that Wojtyla encouraged any reconciliation of the couple and the ultimate outcome indicates that the delay in granting an annulment was due purely to political appearances; that is, it would look bad to grant an annulment to a current head of State.

Your comments, poche, are not only not germane to the topic, but it appears that you intentionally intended to mislead the membership by suggesting an actual Catholic moral motive in actions by Wojtyla when subsequent events clearly demonstrate purely political motives.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent encourages separated spouses to reunite:

Advantages Of Indissolubility

Lest, however, the law of Matrimony should seem too severe on account of its absolute indissolubility, the advantages of this indissolubility should be pointed out.

The first (beneficial consequence) is that men are given to understand that in entering Matrimony virtue and congeniality of disposition are to be preferred to wealth or beauty ­­ a circuмstance that cannot but prove of the very highest advantage to the interests of society at large.

In the second place, if marriage could be dissolved by divorce, married persons would hardly ever be without causes of disunion, which would be daily supplied by the old enemy of peace and purity; while, on the contrary, now that the faithful must remember that even though separated as to bed and board, they remain none the less bound by the bond of marriage with no hope of marrying another, they are by this very fact rendered less prone to strife and discord. And even if it sometimes happens that husband and wife become separated, and are unable to bear the want of their partnership any longer, they are easily reconciled by friends and return to their common life.

The pastor should not here omit the salutary admonition of St. Augustine who, to convince the faithful that they should not consider it a hardship to receive back the wife they have put away for adultery, provided she repents of her crime, observes: Why should not the Christian husband receive back his wife when the Church receives her? And why should not the wife pardon her adulterous but penitent husband when Christ has already pardoned him? True it is that Scripture calls him foolish who keepeth an adulteress ; but the meaning refers to her who refuses to repent of her crime and quit the disgraceful course she has entered on.

From all this it will be clear that Christian marriage is far superior in dignity and perfection to that of Gentiles and Jєωs.