Sir, - A spokesperson for the Law Reform Commission has said that there were normally two types of ground for nullity, but in America the Catholic Church is more liberal, according to a book Shattered Faith by Sheila Rauch Kennedy, ex-wife of Joe Kennedy. When her husband sought an annulment, he told his reluctant wife, that the issue of annulment was just "Catholic gobbledegook".
He did not believe in it, "nobody believes in it". But this gobbledegook has teeth, to which Catholics can testify. The author quoted the views of an expert in Canon law, Fr Curran, who referred to annulment as a loophole that the church found and then "drove a Mack truck through it". But wait for it, he added that Canon lawyers sometimes boast that there is not a Catholic marriage in the US that they could not annul. Miley, where are you?
It appears an annulment tribunal can do as it pleases. There is little accountability and the US is the Nevada of the annulment world, where a fee is paid for the nullity. Annulment tribunals rule in 90 per cent of cases that in the eyes of God the marriage never truly existed. However, Ms Rauch Kennedy believed that her marriage that produced their children was valid and saw annulment as hypocrisy; a dishonest way for the church to slip divorced Catholics back into the church by a theological side door.
How does one explain to children holding their parents' wedding photograph that the church decided the marriage never existed? The church has married those who obtained their nullity and it has been known in Holy Ireland that a "not guilty" verdict was returned in a bigamy case.
Surely it is time to drive a coach and four through the loopholes which not only shattered faith but shattered lives. The author showed courage in highlighting this great issue and looked only to her own conscience for approval. - Yours, etc.,
M.Lyder, Dartry, Dublin 6.