Another thing I love doing as a priest is helping someone go through the annulment process. Many people get into marriages that fail because they were actually doomed from the start. It used to be that the Catholic Church only granted annulments if the marriage ceremony was done without regard for the laws of the Church, or if the marriage had never been consummated. The 20th century, however, saw the advanced understanding of human relationships through the social sciences. The 1987 revised Canon Law of the Catholic Church took the best from the social sciences to help determine if a marriage was put together by God. The insight the Church embraced is that there is more to a healthy marriage than a ceremony and consummation. So, the annulment process takes a look at the family background and the maturity and many other factors, like addictions, that may have been a poison pill for the chances of a successful marriage.
All of this matters because we Catholics are really the only Christian body that takes Jesus seriously when in Matthew, Chapter 19, he said, "Let no one put asunder what God has joined together." Even in that chapter, Jesus made an exception: there can be no divorce and remarriage "except in the case of porneia." Porneia was a legal term, which means that there are some legal reasons why an exception can be made to the ban on divorce and remarriage. That's what the annulment process seeks to find out: is there a legal reason why a particular failed marriage can be annulled?
It's a long process and not easy; but what a joy it is when I can bless the marriage of a couple whose previous marriages have been annulled.
Now, as for why I included this picture taken on top of Mosquito Pass: it's because I went 4-wheeling with folks whose annulments I worked on; and when the final word comes in, from "the court of second instance", I will get to bless their marriage. Now, that is a blast!
