Q: How many anullments are there today? Aren’t there too many of them?

A: If you mean, “Are there more anullments than there should be in an ideal society?” the answer is yes, because there are too many invalid marriages in our society.

If you mean, “Are there more anullments than there should be given the number of invalid marriage in our society?” then the answer is no. Our society has so projected into people’s minds a set of false values about marriage, divorce, adultery, remarriage, and children, that there are a huge number of invalid marriage today compared to what there were in previous Christian societies, where people knew and accepted marriage on God’s terms.

I have checked with a friend of mine who is a canon lawyer, and only one in ten marriages involving a Catholic is ever annulled, which is not at all an unreasonable number considering the amount of false teaching concerning adultery, divorce, homosexuality, and selfishness that our society blasts at its members through every conceivable media outlet.

In previous years, and in other societies (such as modern Ireland), where there is not the relentless barrage of false images and messages in this area, the anullment rate was/is much lower. The current 10% rate is indicative of a change in society, not a change in the Church’s teachings, which has always been what I have just indicated. The Church ardently wishes, and the pope strenuously labors in his constant teachings on the family, for Christian marriage to be restored to the place of honor and holiness that it once held in the minds of Christians in the developed world, leading to a corresponding drop in anullments. The Church hates the contracting of invalid marriages; it does not approve it.