The announcement the other day that the Vatican had reversed the annulment of former representative Joseph Kennedy II’s first marriage raised some bells for those concerned about [tag]Catholic wedding annulment[/tag].

But in Sydney, Australia, the man responsible for granting about 120 of 600 marriage annulment applications in Australia and New Zealand each year welcomed the spotlight.

Father Christopher Sheehy, a canon lawyer, told The Australian newspaper that “People say there are too many annulments. We say there are too many people marrying invalidly”. Nevertheless, annulment applications are down from around 1000 just 10 years ago.

He said that an invalid marriage was one in which either party lacked the psychological or mental fitness to consent freely.

“Psychological incapacity” was the ground on which the Kennedy annulment was granted in 1996, and Fr Sheehy said the marriage of Princess Diana and Prince Charles was another classic example.

He blames the malaise on what he calls the aversion of 30-somethings to suffering.

“The ‘me’ generation does not like suffering and may not necessarily marry with a great level of commitment,” he said. “A lot of people marry now because it’s ‘the thing to do’.

“Usually the ones who apply (for annulment) are the ones who try the hardest to make it work, and often they are women.”

One wonders, then, if the grounds for annulment need to be so striking, how is it that such unions slip through the net in the first place.

Or do people really say ‘yes’ to marriage as lightly as they agree to go to the movies?

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