Two examples from real life:-
The man has a mistress from several years before meeting his wife to be. He already has a child with her and she is six months pregnant with his second child at the time of his wedding. His wife and her family know nothing of it. They remain married for six years, have two children and are expecting a third when he blows his cover by an unwise financial move. The mistress knew about it the entire time and was “okay” with it! She was baptized Catholic and he was baptized Lutheran who agreed to raising the kids Catholic, etc. They got a dispensation. He even went to Mass when he wasn’t “working.”
Isn’t deliberate deception of a serious nature a legitimate reason for annulment?
A dating couple, both Catholic, discuss marriage. He wants to get engaged, but she’s not sure. The reason is because she’s been seeing someone else, unbeknownst to him. They let things go on too long, and she sleeps with the side-lover, becoming pregnant. He’s not neither Catholic nor a marriage prospect. When he finds out, he offers an illegal abortion or farewell. She takes the farewell, and then seduces the other man to sin. After thus sinning a number of times, she tells she’s pregnant. Wanting to do the honorable thing and make it right, they get engaged, go to confession, and have a small Catholic marriage ceremony. The baby girl looks very much like her mother, and as she grows, several distant relatives who knew of her former boyfriend begin talking. The child begins to resemble the ex-boyfriend and not her father at all. The marriage isn’t going well. She says she doesn’t want any more children, and she eventually requests a divorce. He is most upset, having been trying to be a good Catholic father and husband. But finally she leaves him for another man and is soon carrying his baby. They get a civil divorce leaving the girl in his custody. He gets drafted and custody goes to the mother when he’s deployed to Vietnam. He ends up in country for seven years. When he returns, his daughter doesn’t know him, doesn’t want to know him. He spends the next five years being reviled by the general public as happened to most Vietnam vets. He’s got PTSD, turns to drinking and drugs, but finally, his mother’s prayers are answered. He gets help, moves in with his brother’s family and his mother, goes back to Church, finds work in construction. He meets a widow with four sons, one still in high school. She’s Catholic, too. He knows his ex is still alive, so he says he can’t marry. She convinces him to request an annulment. Not surprisingly, he’s granted one by the now VII church. Still, he doesn’t feel quite right about it. Again, it’s Mom who has the idea. She remembers the talk from years before. It takes two years to convince his daughter to consent to a DNA test. Sure enough, there is no way the two are related. Although not her fault, the daughter is furious and sues her “father” and “grandmother” for defamation, deception, emotional distress, etc. They lost all but one aspect of the case. They had a full Church wedding, etc. About 10 years ago they began attending an Indult Mass, and after it’s relocation at a distance, looked into Mass at an SSPV chapel. When shown the annulment certificate, along with the DNA test, and told the entire story, they’re still barred from receiving the Sacraments. One priest said there’d have to be a statement from the ex wife admitting to deceiving him into marriage. But that didn’t happen as the ex was by then in a nursing home suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease. She has since passed away.
Now that his ex has died, couldn’t they now go to an SSPV chapel? Whether or not they’d recognize the annulment shouldn’t matter. You cannot be married to a dead person, right?
Topic: Is There a Legitimate Way for Trads to get an Annulment? (Read 7537 times)