I read that Ted Kennedy was able to get an annulment on the grounds he never intended to be faithful to his first wife, Joan. A recent posting on your forum mentioned this as a possible reason for an annulment. He died a Catholic in good standing even though he remarried. I am shocked. Most of the postings on the EWTN forums and in our diocesan paper mention his support of abortion but no one mentions the circumstances of his annulment and remarriage.

The information on the grounds for his annulment are naturally not in the public record, though he or someone else may have revealed them, I don't know.

In any case, if a Catholic receives an annulment based on some defect of the vows, then they are free to remarry, provided that defect is not going to repeat itself in the new marriage. The Church cannot marry someone knowing they are entering an invalid marriage. So, any Catholic in that situation would have to assure the Church that the reason for the defect in the marriage receiving the Decree of Nullity will not re-occur in the marriage they want to make. That would apply to the Senator and anyone in a similar situation. Presumably that was done.

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