Why have they been hiding Rep Joe Kennedy III

[pnwmom]

88. It is a Catholic sacrament and it does NOT affect the legality of the civil marriage.

And it doesn't make her children illegitimate, as she falsely claimed. They needed a civil divorce to dissolve their civil marriage.

The reason people are considered married by the state after the Catholic ceremony has nothing to do with the Catholic ceremony itself. It's because before or after performing the Catholic sacrament, the priest completes -- along with the couple -- the civil paperwork. And that civil paperwork is the only reason a Catholic couple is legally married in the eyes of the state.

What the annulment means is that in the eyes of the Church, because of some reason related to one or both partners, the "joining together" wasn't an occasion of "grace" -- which is what a Sacrament is supposed to be.

I don't know what you mean by 'regular people have to follow the rules." Regular people can and do get annulments. Not just Kennedys.

I disagree with calling her "kind" when she was trying to prevent him from remarrying as a Catholic when she herself wasn't a Catholic and could easily marry in her own church.