“Have you figured out your grounds for annulment yet?”

Excuse me?

Grinning over a Rubbermaid salad. “I mean, have you planned your dissolution? Everybody does it at some point when you work here.” Juicy eyes.

Cue: bright: playful: innocent: “No!?! We’re happily married. The stuff I read is so intense, I would feel… strange to compare.”

But I do compare. I identify a LOT with what the petitioners. Too much? Whose to say. God? God and the judicial vicar. I do love that guy.

_

I worked at the tribunal for a summer as a sort-of honorary auditor. I read a lot of testimony to summarize & interviewed folks to better understand their experiences in failed marriages. In order to determine if it was a marriage at all. Heavy stuff.

According to the Church, a marriage is blessed by God. Hallowed. It’s a calling. A vocation. Boy: priests have to train for like 8 years before they’re allowed to commit to their calling. We did like… 8 months?

So if it doesn’t work, you go before the Church, represented by the judicial vicar, to state your experience… and sometimes the Church says: Yea, that wasn’t a marriage after all. And they “dissolve” the marriage.

_

“We’re super lucky. We love each other. We’re happy together. We’ve got a good thing going.”

_

Except… he concealed some serious things. Not intentionally! But… irresponsibly? And it amounts to Concealment (Can 1098). If God thinks so. And the judicial vicar.