Will Pope Francis’ annulment reforms impact U.S. Catholics?

[trotsky]

http://www.religionnews.com/2015/09/08/pope-francis-streamlines-annulment-process-but-will-it-affect-u-s-catholics/

The streamlined marriage annulment procedures unveiled by the Vatican are aimed at simplifying what is often a tedious gauntlet of red tape. But it’s not clear how much effect the reforms ordered by Pope Francis will have in the U.S., where about half of all annulments are granted even though American Catholics are just 6 percent of the global church.

That’s largely because in recent decades American dioceses have taken a number of steps to make the process less cumbersome and time-consuming, some of which were reflected in the new procedures announced Tuesday (Sept. 8) in Rome.

...

Annulment rulings can currently take up to a year, or more, and cost upwards of $1,000, though in the U.S. fees can be waived.

Like everything else the wonderpope has done, however, this is just fancier window dressing on a very bad policy. Much like the fanfare with which it was announced women who had abortions could be "forgiven" for making their own reproductive choices. The core policy doesn't change - a single abortion is still worse than genocide to the RCC - but instead a "feel good" announcement is supposed to make everyone think things are changing. They aren't.

No, the core problem that the RCC refuses to address is this:

The Catholic Church does not allow divorce but has long recognized that in some cases a marriage was never valid — if one party, for example, never intended to be faithful or was still married to another person at the time, or if impotence prevented consummation of the marriage or, most commonly, if one or both parties were judged too psychologically immature at the time to understand what they were doing.

People change. People grow. Sometimes they can grow apart. They can have a perfectly fine and valid marriage for decades, but then make the mutual decision to move on. It's not necessarily someone's fault. Pretending that a marriage can never simply end, the church continues to cause misery and suffering for its members.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. no no it's great yo're jst an anti-catholic bigot!

becase words and stff.

[cleanhippie]

2. Cut the dolts in 3..2..

[Goblinmonger]

3. My in-laws got an annulment through the Catholic Church.

After they had been married for decades and had 7 kids. SEVEN KIDS. And after that, they church agreed that the marriage never happened. Annulments are a fucking joke. I told my wife she's going to hell now because she's an out-of-wedlock bastard.

I mean, they want to act like a marriage can never end, but all they are doing is putting lipstick on a pig if they are going to annul marriages like my in-laws. Just change to policy to say it's OK to divorce, because that's what you are effectually doing.

Asshats.

[trotsky]

4. House of cards.

Many Catholics, perhaps even some in the leadership, realize that there are horribly wrong doctrines.

But the problem is, they've built their whole church on the foundation that they CANNOT POSSIBLY BE WRONG. Admitting they were wrong about just one little thing will send the whole structure crumbling.

[cleanhippie]

5. What ISN'T a fucking joke when it comes to these arbitrary rules the RCC follows?

The whole thing is a fucking joke.

[rug]

6. Do you think two people making a lifetime commitment to each other is "a very bad policy"?

[uriel1972]

8. No, but saying a marriage never happened...

Is something of a lie.

[Act_of_Reparation]

7. Oh stop it, Trotsky.

We should be tripping over ourselves to praise Pope Francis for finally bringing the Roman Catholic Church into the previous century.