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Introductory Topics |
Annulments One of the challenging activities for some people entering into the RCIA process is the need to look at our lives and address those decisions we've made in our past that we were not able to fully commit to. One of those decisions may have been the decision to enter into a marriage that did not work out and then to enter into another marriage. This is a sensitive topic, and a brief write-up on a web page will not convey the depth of sensitivity the Catholic Church has about marriage, so please contact one of the priests at St. Gilbert for more information about the annulment process as it relates to you. To oversimplify, the Bible (and as a result, the Church) holds marriage in such high regard that it sees it as a symbol of the love of God for His people. God's love is never-ending, and the resultant covenant that He makes with His people is also never-ending. It is upon that model that the Church reveres marriage as one of its sacraments. Unfortunately, sometimes we are not able to commit to each other in the same way that God commits to even if that commitment is to someone we are deeply in love with. See, it is only through the grace of God, provided in the Sacrament of Matrimony, that we humans can be sustained in our commitment to live with another in love in the same way God commits to live with us in love. And as a result, the marriages that we entered into can come to an end. The annulment process seeks to state that there never was at any time a valid sacramental marriage between these two people (there was a civil marriage, so the children are not out of wedlock). Annulments are something the Church does not because it wants to, but because, among the believing community, there are people who have not been able to love as they wanted because they were not sustained in that marriage by God's sacramental grace. For more information on the Catholic Church's perspective on marriage, read through the presentation on the Sacrament of Marriage. |