Customer Reviews

Annulments and the Catholic Church

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book explained the entire annullment process in terms a layperson could understand. The book is divided into question/answer segments, all relevant and easy-to-understand. The best resource I've found on an often confusing topic. A must-read if you are considering annullment or need to answer those who question the process.

After the wife of my youth left me I purchased this book to better understand the process I would be going through. I was so impressed with it that I bought additional copies for my witnesses and even the wife of my youth so that they would understand it as well. Ed Peters has managed to distill into simple questions and answers all the important information on this oft-misunderstood process.

In addition to explaining the basic process this book also dispels most common misunderstandings regarding annulments. Annulments are NOT "Catholic divorce" as many mistakenly claim. This book will help you understand and correct such errors and explain why there is a fundamental and essential difference between divorce and the investigation into the validity of a marriage that the Catholic Church performs. Divorce is a grave matter and the acceptance of it by the ecclesial communities of our separated brethren in clear contradiction to our Lord's express commands is a great scandal. This book will better equip you to explain the truth.

This book will also help to assuage concerns over alleged "abuses" of the process, especially here in the USA. After reading this book I no longer wonder if there might be something wrong in the process because of the high number of marriages found to be invalid here in America; instead I now wonder what is wrong with our culture that produces so many invalid marriages.

Again, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Buy it.

A comprehensive and understandable treatment of a very complex subject

Marriage Annulment in the Catholic Church affects a great number of Catholics on a very personal and painful way. It is not just the parties themselves who are affected, but their families, their friends, their fellow parishioners. This author, as both a canon lawyer and a civil lawyer, is uniquely qualified to deal with an explanation of the process. He outlines and explains. He hypothesizes and analyzes. The hypotheticals are the best part of this book. There does not seem to be a situation Dr. Peters does not touch on. This is an important book to have if you are considering entering into this annulment process either as a Petitioner, Respondent or Witness. The Glossary is very useful in going through the book, so have your finger tucked into it while you are going through the questions. Read all of the questions and answers before you enter into the process. Taken as a whole, they give you a feel for the legal system involved. Read the Introduction first. It sets a good stage for the rest of the book.

I differ with Dr. Peters in one point that is an important one. He asserts that there is no blame attributed in an annulment process. In a perfect Catholic world that would be the case. But there are grounds for the annulment and they came from somewhere. It is true that the Church would prefer not to have this be a contentious process like a divorce. But in the end, it can be. Here however, it is an equal opportunity fault finder and both parties can be held to some accountability.

As an Appendix, Dr. Peters has an essay on Annulments in America. It is clear that it is his opinion based on his vast experience. It is well-written and completely separate from his Q and A segment. It is interesting and should be taken for what it is. Considering Dr. Peters qualifications and experience, it is a valuable addition to this book.

If you want a quick one stop source for most answers you need then this might be the book for you. It is an easy read and well organized but no new information than what I found elsewhere on the internet.

And, as the title suggests, this book offers little 'advice' on how to speed the process, what keys pieces of information the Church may be looking for to expedite the review or advice to those who may have a legitimate case but be light on the required supporting information.

I've found more answers researching internet blogs and speaking directly with my church.

An act of annulment is a spiritual rite of making null and void a transaction - in this case of marriage. It is not a divorce which is a legal declaration that obligations between two parties has ceased. Annulment is on par with marriage in the sense that it dissolves the vow and pledges spoken to create the marital covenant. This is a major distinction. Once a bride and bridegroom take vows to each other in front of a priest in a church in front of all their friends and families .... It is not a promise, a contract, or an agreement, it is a sacred divine vow, a permanent spiritual binding union of two souls. A fusion of two people into one. Annulment is a spiritual erasure of that vow. So non-Catholics who must go through the process to marry a Catholic will learn how to understand this process. It is a second chance to get it right once and for all.

Edward Peters, an ambitious Catholic gadfly, who has recently told the Governor of New York that he is not fit to participate fully in his religion, is determined to reduce relationships to potential crimes. Just read the opening of Chapter 6 of this book. Problems of marriage, that might produce a break in relations, are in this man's world "grounds" that are similar to "counts" in a criminal indictment. Do you really need to know anything more abou the man's world-view after you hear that?? This book is an utterly onanistic attempt to probelmatize difficult situations, which are already difficult enough. But gadflies of negativity are always on the look-out for ways they can make other people's life difficult, and thus assuage their own unhappiness and regret. The book speaks of God's mercy, but it is hard to see how any of it is relevant to a compassionate understanding of a failed human relationship. It is a legalistic romp to fill the head of a little mind, determined to make the world as unhappy as he has made others in his life. If that is the Catholic contribution to marital understanding then it is a very meager contribution indeed. As someone who once worked in a Cathoiic Marriage Tribunal for a summer and saw people's most intimate marital details paraded before effete clerics for perusual and review, Mr. Peters cold anatomies strike me as heartless. It is a fool's errand, but fools sometimes figure a way to garner attention. Telling deacons they cannot marry, telling governors they cannot participate. If this is good religion then every man is a fool. But it would be hard to compete with the conceptual foolishness of this effort.

Looking for information and reassurance? - then
I would discourage you from getting this book.
There were several quite harsh and judgmental passages
- contributing to the feeling that this process is
like an inquisition. Witnesses? I don't get it. Who
has "witnesses" to a painful misbegotten past - a
personal past, 10,20,30 years ago? "Forms and inquiries".
This book only helps reinforce the stereotype that men
who were never married can have no compassion.