New Annulment Process To Be Good News For Divorced Catholics

[onehandle]

Source: AP

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Tuesday will release new streamlined procedures for annulling marriages after he — and thousands of Catholics before him — complained that the church's current system is cumbersome, costly and often unfair.

Francis will release the new rules after a Vatican-appointed commission of canon lawyers spent the past year studying ways to simplify the process while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage, the Vatican said.

Catholic doctrine holds that a church marriage is forever. An annulment is a judgment by a church tribunal that the marriage had some inherent defect from the start. Reasons vary, including that the couple never intended their marriage to last or that one of the spouses didn't want children.

Catholics have long complained that it can take years to get an annulment, if they can get one at all. Costs can reach into the hundreds or thousands of dollars for legal and tribunal fees.


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/catholic-divorce_55ed8ac1e4b03784e276289e

[graegoyle]

1. If their perfect god brought them together, how can that marriage be flawed?

And if their perfect god can inspire a flawed marriage, can other things he inspired be flawed? Like that book?

Let me guess: "Mysterious ways"?

[Skittles]

2. it's all just so silly

amazing how many people buy into it

[Helen Borg]

6. So, now God decided to simplify the paperwork?

...

[Kath1]

3. I WAS Catholic when I got divorced and actually looked into an annulment.

All about $. What a load of bullshit.

[LibDemAlways]

4. Back in the 1980's I taught at a Catholic school.

A fellow teacher, much older than me, had been briefly married to a soldier during WW II. Neither was Catholic. The ceremony was conducted by a Protestant minister. After the war was over, they divorced. She remarried soon after and lost touch with her first husband. Fast forward to 1981. Out of the blue she received a letter from husband #1 asking her to complete paperwork so that their marriage could be annulled. He was engaged to a Catholic and her parish priest insisted that his first marriage be annulled even though neither party was Catholic and it had not taken place in a Catholic church. My friend thought the whole thing was laughable and bizarre, but she went along with it, was questioned extensively by a priest, and ultimately the annulment was granted. Once the annulment came through, the priest who had questioned her asked if she wanted to be married in the Church to the man she had already been married to for 30 years. She couldn't believe he was serious and just laughed the whole thing off.

[Geronimoe]

5. Cost

An annulment can cost $200 to $1,000 and take 18 months or longer.

There are two tribunals. Each saying two Hail Mary and one Our Fool prayers.

What a racket.

[yellowcanine]

7. It is very wrong to allow annulment when there are children involved.

And in fact the whole thing is something of a farce. There are legitimate reasons for annulment such as deception but most of the time the only legitimate way to dissolve a marriage which protects both parties and any children involved is divorce.

[yellowcanine]

8. Annulment is the modern equivalent of selling indulgences, imo.

It serves mainly as a way to make money for churches.

[Angry Dragon]

9. follow the money

it was always a good way for the church to help fill their coffers

[brooklynite]

10. And it only took them 2000 years to figure out what god wanted?