Posted on 09/21/2014 1:29:09 PM PDT by marshmallow
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has ordered a review aimed at simplifying the Church's procedures for annulments, the Vatican said on Saturday, a move that could make it easier for Catholics to end marriages.
A statement said Francis had appointed an 11-member commission of canon lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process, "seeking to simplify and streamline it while safeguarding the principle of the indissolubility of marriage".
An annulment, formally known as a "decree of nullity," is a ruling that a marriage was not valid in the first place according to Church law because certain pre-requisites, such as free will, psychological maturity and openness to having children, were lacking.
In the past decades many within the 1.2 billion-member Church have complained that the procedure is too complicated and archaic.
Most annulments take place at the local diocesan level. Each decision must be reviewed by a second tribunal, a step reformers say is superfluous and should be eliminated.
The Church does not recognize divorce. Catholics who divorce and re-marry outside the Church are considered to be still married to their first spouse and living in a state of sin, which bars them from receiving sacraments such as communion.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
“A Catholic annulment does not annul the civil marriage, that is why you must get a civil divorce separately.”
I had a Catholic marriage, not a civil marriage. If a civil marriage took place (magically), it was without my or my spouse’s knowledge or aproval. How can such a civil marriage even be valid?
I understand of course that the priest is acting as an agent of the state. But he didn’t say that, and I had no knowledge of that when I was 21 YO.
Catholics freely SUBMIT to the authority of the Catholic Church in matters of their faith and the sacraments.
The fact they you will only submit to God is of no consequence to any faithful Catholic.
Ad Majoram Dei Goriam
“Try reading instead of guessing.”
In other words, you don’t know...
My impression is that the Kennedy men could usually show the nullity of their vows simply by admitting they were knowingly fraudulent: they never intended fidelity. In other words, they lied: that's a null vow. A lie cannot be the basis for a sacrament.
Do you understand that?
I continue to be astonished by the number of non-Catholic FReepers who become so annoyed about Church rulings that have no practical effect whatsoever on their personal lives. I just don’t get it.
Of course it makes sense. They are acting in good faith. What you are failing to distinguish is the difference between the objective moral law and a person's subjective guilt for violating that objective moral law. Obviously to intentionally have sex outside a valid marriage is a sin. But if you honestly believe yourself to be in a valid marriage, then you are not sinning by having sex with the person you honestly believe to be your spouse.
Sin is an offense against God, and God is just. He does not sit up in heaven waiting for excuses to be offended by us.
“Catholics freely SUBMIT to the authority of the Catholic Church in matters of their faith and the sacraments.”
Actually that’s not true. It’s only when the Pope speaks ex cathedra. The Catholic Church considers the Pope infallible, but only in limited circumstances.
In every Catholic marriage that I am aware of the Priest forwards a certificate of marriage to the state.
So if you were married by a Catholic priest you are also civally and legally married.
If your looking for an “out” that won’t work.
“If your looking for an “out” that won’t work.”
Actually, having been married to the same gorgeous woman for going on 47 years, and both of us pushing seventy, I’m not looking for an “out” as you put it...
“Actually that’s not true. It’s only when the Pope speaks ex cathedra. The Catholic Church considers the Pope infallible, but only in limited circumstances.”
You are totally utterly wrong.
In you are a faithful practicing Catholic you must freely submit to the authority of the Church, if you don’t then you really aren’t Catholic.
That has absolutely nothing to do with the pope speaking ex cathedra.
If ou don’t fully understand the previous two sentences then you need to have your parish priest explain it to you.
AMDG
I'm sure glad you're not going to be my judge when I die!
I'd bet that every time a batter goes to bat in baseball it is his intention to get a hit. Does the fact that even the best hitters fail seven out of ten tries mean that they don't really intend to get a hit?
Thanks, Dan.
There is he who purports to submit to God (Bill Gothard and his kid brother perhaps, to be featured in Kill Bill III ?) And yet will always find a way to do wants. Each man being his own pope, bishop, priest, and pastor is problematic. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
“In you are a faithful practicing Catholic you must freely submit to the authority of the Church, if you don’t then you really aren’t Catholic.”
Nope, not true... For a sin to be a sin you must believe it to be a sin. A priest’s opinion does not trump conscious. Only when the when the Pope speaks ex cathedra is that true.
And I doubt that the parish priest is going to tell you that...
“I’m sure glad you’re not going to be my judge when I die!”
You don’t even realize how lucky you really are...
Hey I didn’t realize you are from the Cafeteria branch of the Catholic Church, where you get to pick and choose what YOU not the Church believes is right.
Good luck with that when you meet you maker face to face and tell Him you knew better than His Church on earth.
AMDG
“They are acting in good faith”
Nice try, but still completely without any foundation in logic. Annulment by your own definition means that the marriage was never legitimate. It doesn’t matter who acted in “good faith”. The church, your church, states with full authority that the marriage never existed. Therefore any children conceived did so without benefit of marriage. The church says so.
No marriage, no “legitimacy”.
And while we are on the subject can you cite for me chapter and verse wherein Jesus said it was ok for His church to declare that a marriage was somehow illegitimate?
Was that in Luke or John or Paul?
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