Abbey-Roads2

Some people just aren’t close to their family…

It was St. Alexis whom St. Benedict Joseph Labre was called to emulate in his life as a homeless pilgrim.  St. Alexis lived around the year 442, a son of a wealthy Roman.  On his wedding night, he left his father and mother, his virgin bride and all of his inheritance to live the ascetic life of a pilgrim.  Some of the legends differ, but most agree Alexis traveled to Edessa, where he supported himself begging.  Gaining recognition for his holiness, he once again fled the friendship of men, and returned to Rome.  He continued his solitary life of prayer, residing unrecognized by his family, in an alcove beneath the exterior stairs of his father’s house.  It is said he lived on alms and occasional menial labor.  After seventeen years, through the intervention of Divine Providence, his lifeless body was found, with a note revealing his true identity.  Only then did his parents and wife come to understand the meaning of his abandonment of home and family.

The life of St. Benedict Joseph Labre mirrors that of St. Alexis remarkably - which for me, authenticates the veracity of the legend of St. Alexis, since Benedict’s life had been so close to our times and was well documented.  Many today like to discount the stories of the earliest saints as mere fairy tales, or morality tales, yet they endure as much more than that.

“I have forsaken my home, I have cast off my inheritance: I am poor and needy, but the Lord has taken me up” (Jer 12:7).

(Art: Georges LaTour, “The Discovery of St. Alexis”.)

Some call it Catholic divorce. 

The former wife of Joseph Kennedy II has an interesting article regarding annulments in the Catholic Church featured in the LA Times op-ed page.  She claims that last year there were some 57,000 annulments granted in the U.S. alone.   If true, that is a high number.

According to the former Mrs. Kennedy, it appears grounds for most annulments have been based upon Canon 1095, which covers those who are incapable of contracting marriage due to a lack of sufficient reason; grave lack of discretion of judgement; or those, because of psychological problems are unable to assume the obligations of marriage.  Sheila Rausch Kennedy refers to this as the “loose canon” since canon lawyers seem to be able to twist a host of marital problems to fit into this category.

The right to appeal.

I only know a few Catholics who won an annulment, thus permitting them to remarry in the Church.  From what they told me, there was a bit of wrangling to win their decree.  In a couple of situations, the former spouse was not at all compliant in the process, which made things ugly.  In one case, the woman was not in agreement with the decision, but obviously had no idea she could appeal, as Sheila Rausch Kennedy had done.  (Although Mrs. Kennedy had to hire outside attorneys.)

Lacking discretionary judgement.

I have never been involved in an annulment process myself, so I can’t really speak to the issue.  However, the one question I have about the Kennedy thing is this:  If the Kennedy annulment was processed on the diocesan level, with Kennedy using Canon 1095 - which means he was either psychologically unfit, lacked a sufficient use of reason, or worse, discretionary judgement, what does this say about him?   Assuming these were his grounds, how can he be qualified to serve as a politcian?  Did he suddenly mature or find psychological stability after x-number of years?  (He has served in Congress, and has had his eye on his uncle Ted’s Senate seat as well.)