It looks more likely.
Divorce is always a major hassle and complicated. Why is this news?
I don’t know where things will lead, but this story appears to be rather straight forward.
I find all of this annulment, and can’t marry an albatross around the neck of innocents that should not be. I agree that divorce is terrible and God hates it, however, he also states to beware those ‘who forbid to marry’ and ‘strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.”
My catholic friend years ago went through an annulment he did not want, and they had three children, so she could marry someone else....He said something profound “How do I tell the best man that the marriage didn’t happen, because he was there, or my parents. How do you tell your children you have never been married to their mother, when obviously by the wedding photos you were?”
I find the Catholic Church immature and not understanding scripture when you can only site those Scriptures meant to discourage divorce. Jesus himself made it clear when he condemned adultery, ‘if you think it in your mind it’s sin”... and that includes adultery, etc’.....’he who is without sin cast the first stone’ and so on.
Also, in the same Bible it says ‘there is only ONE UNFORGIVABLE SIN and that is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” So that would mean suicide and divorce are forgivable sins...meaning they were put in the sea of forgetfulness with all other sins forgiven.
Who in their right man believes some Priest has the right to dissolve a marriage God attended? Ha! More realistic is that he forgives those who make mistakes, and no piece of paper will change that, IMHO.
(not for you Marshmallow)....AND TO THOSE WHO WANT TO JUMP INTO THIS CONVERSATION, DO NOT SEND ME THOSE TWELVE PARAGRAPHS FROM THE BIBLE THAT CAN BE REFUTED WITH TWELVE OTHERS...just read the whole Bible, pray, and get educated about the GOD who forgives sins...period.
For my wife’s father to get a RC annulment to be married to another women he had to declare his children were bastards....
I think this is one area the CC can move into the 21 st. century ....
As an expert on this matter through hard experience, I would say the following:
The Church has wrestled with divorce and remarriage since the beginning. I just finished reading a book of orthodox Catholic doctrine published in the 1880s which laid out the history over 1500 years of various “solutions”, proposed and/or implemented, before Trent (as the book would have it) ended all debate. But of course, the fundamental issue remains, unchanged, except that millions of Catholics are now affected because of post-1969 changes in civil divorce practice.
The resulting annulment explosion is the problem, and (almost) all bishops hate it. It is the result of a desire to temper justice with mercy (good), but in practice it favors deception and perjury (bad). There is an entire industry that exists to facilitate a successful petition, which will inevitably be granted if certain words are used.
If there is a way to extend mercy, including the recognition of second marriages, while doing away with the lies, most of the bishops would jump at the chance.
Just give them a PO box to send their money to.
I’m still confused. With the sheer number of annulments since Vatican II, exactly how does the process need to be “simplified”? Getting an annulment shouldn’t be easy ... or easier.
In one particular case that I know of, including the details the woman went into the marriage with the idea “If it doesn’t work, I can always get a divorce.” So she made the vow of (till death do us part”) or (”As long as we both shall live”) with no real intent to do so. Would you say that is fraud in the sacrament and possibly null and void?
In America, review by a second tribunal can be relatively quick. The LA diocese sends its cases to Orange county for review, and vice versa. Well, it may add a couple weeks to the process, I guess.
It seems to me that, as a legal procedure, it is not all that rigorous. A lot of lee-way is given for testimony that might not be admitted in a state court.
I think all the Pope needs to do is to tell bishops to process people faster and they will hire a couple of extra personnel, or manage the tribunal better, and get it done.
If they're ending marriages, it's called *divorce*.
All the church is doing is making church sanctioned divorce easier for Catholics.
bumpus ad summum