On 08/08/2020 05:03 PM, Frank wrote:
My brother got an annulment to get remarried in the Catholic Church even
though he had four kids by his first wife. It took several years and
they called me in to testify and I told them that he was too immature to
be married the first time. Will not give details but he was doing
things you would not expect an engaged person to do.

That's the hard part of an annulment, convincing them the first marriage
had enough flaws that it really wasn't a valid marriage. Nobody ever
said Catholics aren't good at logic chopping, particularly the Jebs.


While all of our sons were baptized in the Catholic Church we did not
burden them with a religious upbringing. They have thanked me for that.

I was baptized but one year during Boy Scout week when they said you
should attend church with your family I made the fatal mistake of asking
"What's church?" .

I did have some inkling. A babysitter had dragged my in a church on Good
Friday where you were supposed to silently pray for 2 hours and then
kiss a crucifix lying on a purple satin pillow on your way out. iirc I
had a few nightmares about that.

By the time I got shuffled off to 'religious instruction' every
Wednesday afternoon I'd worked out my own animistic view of how the
world works. It did not include the concept of sin or the need for
salvation from sin and that's really the core of Christianity.