We started watching Jane the Virgin

[conuly]

then decided to take a break because none of us were up for a cancer plot, and now I'm racing to finish it before it goes off Netflix on the 5th.

Now, this is a telenovela/sitcom so there is no possible way to sum up the entire show in the course of one post, but the protagonist, Jane, is a more-or-less devout Catholic. By season 5, where I am, she's mostly given up on a fully stringent approach to her own personal chastity, but while she is technically having sex before marriage she is doing it with the man she intends to marry. That'll be her second marriage, her first husband having tragically died a few years back.

Except he just came back from the dead with a whopping case of soap opera amnesia. And Jane spends quite some time agonizing over getting a divorce because "Catholics don't" which - yeah, no, Catholics do, they just don't then turn around and remarry within the Church afterwards.

But for all her back and forthing over getting a civil divorce, at no point does it seem to occur to her to take this question to her priest, whom you'd think would be the obvious first stop.

(Okay, so she eventually admits her issue is less with her religion and more with her doubts that she really wants to divorce him... but all the same, this does seem like the sort of thing you ask your priest.)

I wonder if an annulment is a possibility in her situation. It seems like it ought to be - she married Michael, and then in good faith started up a new (well, sorta new) relationship after his apparent death, and now Jason has appeared in her husband's body but without his memories or personality and of course she never intended to marry Jason, she doesn't even know him.

But I don't know what the Catholic Church's position is on this matter. I did try googling, but all I found was people who probably know no more than I do. Well, that's unsurprising - this isn't the sort of thing likely to come up in real life, is it?

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Comments

[thekumquat]

I found out the other day that my cousin got an annulment. After having four children, so the usual justification, of not consummating the marriage, wasnt an option.

Apparently another cousin wrote to the correct office at the Vatican and appealed, and it was granted. This would have been around 2002.

Another couple cousins also had annulments, but with no kids, it was basically 'Catholic divorce'.

Consulting a priest for advice at least in my family depends on whether the local priest is a sensible mentor type or a new lad who don't know shit. One of the priests has recently been ousted for alleged child molesting, some older folks liked him but the younger generation never trusted him and wouldn't seek his advice on anything, not like old Father wossname.

[conuly]

These are not real people, of course, but there's no suggestion that Jane or her immediate family have any problem with this priest, who is a recurring character.

This same episode has her son enrolled in CCD at her church.

Has your family had a rather unusual amount of annulments, or has the Church taken to handing them out like condoms candy?

Annulments

[thekumquat]

I have a huge Polish/Irish American Catholic family, so it's more that there's lots of them, but it certainly is assumed that anyone without kids can get an annulment on request. It's certainly way more routine than I've ever heard of in the UK - I think I've heard of one annulment ever, apart from Henry VIII of course.

Re: Annulments

[conuly]

...okay, but... but hold on. If you're getting an annulment rather than a divorce to be Catholic-compliant then, well, shouldn't you be honoring your convictions by only seeking an annulment if one of the two parties did not commit to the marriage? No offense to your family, but that can't be true for everybody if this is the genuine assumption. Surely God can be presumed to know what really went on in your heart of hearts?

Re: Annulments

[thekumquat]

I only got the Catholic indoctrination one month a year (aunt was a Sunday School teacher. Did Madonna's confirmation classes, I'm told.) So God knows. Literally.

It may be relevant that it always seemed to be the women seeking the annulment on the grounds of the husband being crap, aka not entering into marriage seriously. And that there seem to be more women actually wanting to go to church, partly for the community, maybe because they actually believe. The men grow up and then only go to church when they hit 30 and want to find a Nice Young Woman. Which seems to work, especially if they don't mind the woman had previously married young.