The other night I was drinking with an American Catholic nun and her daughter.The mother had been married twice, once to a former priest.
She had entered a convent straight out of high school and left to marry her high school sweetheart eight years later.
Some time after the second marriage broke down and her daughter was grown she re-entered the order: this was possible because her first marriage had been annulled, and the second had never existed in official eyes because the husband had not been dispensed from his vows as a priest.
When she talked about Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI she sketched a Hitler salute in the air and giggled.
I don’t know of any story which better illustrates the gap between the Vatican’s official teaching about marriage and the lived experience of some of the most serious Catholics.
There have always been annulments available for the rich and well-connected, but for most Catholics divorce is not recognised and – more to the point – their second marriages will officially be treated as adulterous relationships, and disbar them from communion. Continue reading.
Andrew Brown is a journalist, writer, and editor. He writes a blog for The Guardian, and edits their online Comment is Free blog.
Source: The Guardian
Image: Linda Nylind/The Guardian