The United States is the annulment capital of the Catholic world, with 49 percent of all requests for a church-blessed marriage breakup happening in America, according to a new survey.
What’s more, 90 percent of those couples who tell the church that they really didn’t mean to say “I do” are let off the hook.
According to the Georgetown University-linked Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Poland ranks second in annulments but only accounts for 6 percent of the overall number of cases in the world, followed by Italy, Brazil, India and Mexico.
The Center noted that the U.S. number is down significantly, but the reason is mixed. The center said that while Catholics seem to be staying married longer, “fewer are marrying.”
In 2012, the latest year figures were provided for, there were 24,010 annulments in the U.S. In 1990, there were 72,308 annulment cases. Most claimed one of several reasons the church requires for saying they didn’t mean, or weren’t ready, to marry.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
