ATWT- Janet character change
TheBahboo
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The very idea of uber-catholic Janet being willing to fly off to some
island for a quicky divorce is a total change of character. As she
has been written up till now, she would insist on waiting for the
annulment...that the church would give since Jack is with Carly...so
she could stay in the church and marry Dusty in the church.
She gets a divorce, she can't even take communion in a traditional
catholic church, can she?
This is just frickin annoying.
KC
She's getting the divorce now, she'll get the annulment later. She has
to do both, so why not get one of them out of the way? When I got a
divorce, my Catholic ex didn't initiate the annulment until he got
engaged to a Catholic woman who wanted to marry in the Church. He was
free to receive communion, because he wasn't living in "a state of
serious sin". It took months to get the annulment paperwork and
interviews done and ATWT doesn't really have time for that, though
they could be doing that in the background and have Janet's wedding to
Dusty occur in the September.
As far as communion goes, according to the Church:
"Divorced Catholics lose none of their rights in the Church, except
the right to enter a new marriage, until the Church declares them free
to marry. All Catholics, divorced Catholics included, are free to
receive the sacraments, provided they are not in a state of serious
sin, (i.e. have not "remarried outside the Church," or are not
cohabiting with another partner). If they are in another marital (or
cohabiting) union, they are not permitted to receive the sacraments.
People in such a situation are encouraged to attempt to seek an
annulment (see above)."
At this point, Janet isn't living with Dusty, so she's fine to receive
communion.
KC
TheBahboo
I had no idea it was that complicated irl. (obviously not catholic
savvy here)
ejfan1973
the Catholic Church. It's like saying the marriage never happened
thereby illegitimatizing any children involved.
Rthrquiet
Is it even possible to get an annulment if there are children
involved?
I did have a coworker in the mid-1980s tell me that she and her
brother had been told, by their priest, that because their parents
were divorced, they were illegitimate. Only he used a less genteel
word for it.
Michael
KC
There are two kinds of marriage, civil and sacramental. An annulment
is granted when it is determined that the marriage had flaws from the
beginning that prevented it from ever being a sacramental marriage. In
my case, the nun explained that because I'm not Catholic, I didn't
really know what was expected of a sacramental marriage, plus I didn't
want children, so I entered into it at a lesser commitment
(Catholic-wise). She was very nice, not as harsh and judgmental as
that just sounded.
Anyway, if we had had children, they'd still be legitimate, because
legitimacy is a civil issue and since we were married according to
civil law, they'd still be legitimate after the civil divorce. The
fact that we were never married according to church law doesn't change
their status.
As far as your co-worker's priest, the Church may have softened their
position at some point (or that priest is just a hard ass). The idea
of annulment was the second Vatican council's solution to the
increased number of divorces that led to those parties no longer being
part of the Church. So, in 1960 or so, annulment was the way to allow
divorced Catholics to remarry in the Church.
Let's face it, the Church has bills to pay; the last thing they need
is to lose members and suddenly making kids bastards is a great way to
alienate them. I suspect that my ex, who never went to church EVER in
the 15 years we were together, suddenly became a church-goer when he
met his fiance and the Church is going to back the one who's filling
the collection plate over a non-Catholic every time.
The Catholic Church's position is: "Canon law states that "children
who are conceived or born of a valid or of a putative marriage are
legitimate." A marriage which is eventually discerned to be invalid
through the annulment process was nevertheless considered valid by
both parties at the time of the wedding, and presumably at the time
the children were conceived. This constitutes a "putative marriage",
and children conceived in such a relationship are therefore
legitimate.
Canon 1137 of the Code of Canon Law specifically affirms the
legitimacy of children born in both valid and putative marriages
(objectively invalid, though at least one party celebrated in good
faith)."
KC
Chopper
Talk about character change, how about when Janet first came on the
show, she was promiscuous and Liberty was telling Parker that her Mom
use to beat her. Now she the virtuous Cathollic,
Dana Carpender
Was she? Or was that just the impression we got from Brad calling her
"Juicy Janet," and the fact that she got pregnant young, and was trying
to snag Brad? I don't recall that she actually slept with anyone.
Dana
KC
When she first came on, she met a guy and took him back to her room,
but, IIRC, he beat her up when things started going faster than she
wanted. She didn't sleep with him, but Liberty had talked about how
her mother had had many disastrous relationships, though there weren't
any specifics. Her initial relationship with Jack was a "friends with
benefits" deal, though it quickly changed to something more.
She really only started talking about how strong her faith was during
her wedding preparations with Jack. But, I think the show was still
trying to settle on the character details and figure out who they were
going to link her to. It would have been nice if they had given her
some dialogue to establish that she, for instance, let people think
she was easy to seem cool, or that the failed relationships were
because she wouldn't sleep with them (or slept with them too soon and
then they didn't respect her or something), or a confession to Jack
that she hadn't been very religious, but recently found her faith
again.
I think they've been consistent in Janet's personality (funny, lively,
feisty), but not very consistent in her past or her religion. I think
a devout character tend to stump soap writers, when it actually
provides many story opportunities.
KC