Kolek planning to go pro
Maybe someone here can tell me the "practical difference" between an annulment and a divorce. I realize they are not the same thing, but don't they accomplish exactly the same thing?I was raised in a pretty strict protestant home and always wanted to be a catholic as a kid. I had to follow all these rules about what I could and couldn't do (fun things always lined up on the "couldn't side) and they got to do whatever they wanted and then just go to confession and everything was reset.
Hopefully this doesn't take us into the locked thread alley, but as a non-catholic (lutheran...so catholic lite, twice the salvation, half the guilt) I've always been confused by how "strict" the church is and how blatantly the believers ignore the churches rules.My wife is catholic and before we got married we had a serious discussion about what faith we wanted to follow. She didn't have to become lutheran, but I told her in no uncertain terms I would not become catholic. I just can't get up before god and pledge to faithfully adhere to his rules per the catholic church when I know I'm going to ignore/fight against 75% of them.Apologizes for my callousness but why is it that folks of the catholic faith hold it to be such a part of their identity and speak so highly of it but than choose to ignore it when it comes to the vast majority of their life decisions/politics?The most liberal people I know are catholic....clearly I'm missing something. I'm not judging in any way just trying to understand it. My wife couldn't explain it and she went to a catholic school for everything but high school and college.
The Catholic legal system (aka Canon Law) is very different from the civil legal system we are used to. For example, in secular society we have relatively lax laws when it comes to morality (do basically whatever you want, as long as it doesn't trample on others' rights or harm the common good). But if you break the laws, there will be consequences and you will have to suffer the punishment. The Church runs in the opposite way: very strict moral code, but a more forgiving attitude if they are broken: we are all sinners, right? So confess, do your penance, and life is good. Its just a different way of approaching morality. And its very strange for people used to secular law.
Yeah but I think he is touching on something more than that. For instance, many Catholics use birth control. They do so knowing that it is against Catholic teaching and my guess is that they don't view it as a sin and don't confess about its use. I had a good friend at Marquette that simply called its prohibition by the church "silly."And that's just one issue. Homosexuality is another. How many Catholics actively campaign for the death penalty? For pro-choice? Against universal health coverage?
Pretty sure you are correct with these impressions.
The Catholic Church (as of now, this may be changing as we speak) does not allow for divorce. Annulments, in their truest sense (the marriage was never valid, and never happened) have historically been allowed for very specific reasons: marriage was never consummated, inability to procreate, marriage was conducted under duress or influence, etc. There was very specific criteria that had to be met for the marriage to be declared as never happening. However, more recently annulments have become a de facto Catholic divorce, and now the Church just allows divorce by another name. Since the cat is already out of the bag, the Church should just stop pretending and accept that divorces happen and keep those people as part of the Church, if they want to be.
What exactly (specifically) do you mean by ignoring the church rules when it comes to the "vast majority" of their life decisions? Artificial birth control, yes. Premarital sex, yes. What else?
Self-gratification.
not so sure about those reasons for anullments, I work with a guy that after 5 years of marriage and 2 kids was granted an annulment after a $10,000 contribution, that was over 20 years ago
That's a big one
Not that I would know.
homosexual marriage, not divorcing, no meat on Fridays, regular attendance of confession, not taking the lord's name in vain, etc. Ya know, your basic venial sins. I could probably create a whole list of church teachings (as I understand them) that I've seen countless catholics ignore.
No meat on Friday has been off the list of rules for decades.
This might surprise you, but technically it hasn't. It is up to the local Bishop conference. In some places in the world, giving up meat on Friday would amount to a meaningless requirement. And in this country how much of a sacrifice is it really? Shrimp scampi instead of meatloaf? What is still Canon law, however, is the requirement on each and every Friday to perform some kind of penance. Sincere, practicing Catholics who honestly do not know of this obligation are of course not culpable for failing to follow it, but the fact remains that it's still on the books.Canon 1251Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.
Somehow, I am guessing St. Peter is laughing at the abstruse, pedantic nature of all of this...
That's what a Navy wife said to me...
Jesus wept.
I'd like to think that he saves his weeping for the victims of pedophiles wearing Roman Collars.