How the Annulment Process Turned into Catholic Divorce

The recent appointment of Maria Montserrat “Montse” Alvarado, a 39-year-old single lay woman, as the new Prefectress of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication provided me with an excellent opportunity to dive into a topic that needs much more attention: the annulment crisis in the Church.

Her appointment raises the question because she proudly announced that she was “annulled” in multiple interviews prior to her appointment as head of all Vatican communications. She claims she made a “mistake” (getting married) and that the annulment process provided her healing.

In support of her very pro-annulment position, she relies on all the popular post-Vatican II teachings on marriage and the annulment process, which whether she realizes it or not, contributes significantly to turning the annulment process into nothing more than Catholic divorce. I contend there is no significant difference between the post-Vatican II annulment process and no-fault secular divorce.

How can this be if annulments are supposed to be a legal determination that a marriage was never validly contracted in the first place and secular no-fault divorce purports to dissolve a previous valid marriage?

What most people do not realize is that while annulments have always been something available to seek for reasons that would truly invalid a marriage, such as impotence, after Vatican II, the criteria for obtaining an annulment changed. And it changed based on Vatican II’s refusal to uphold Catholic doctrine on the purpose of marriage. Bad doctrine leads to bad canon law, which leads to bad fruit.

Please check out my recently published article at Integrity Magazine where I explain all this.

AI-generated image, published at Integrity Magazine.