Pope radically simplifies Catholic marriage annulment procedures

[flowers]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/08/us-pope-annulments-idUSKCN0R814C20150908

Pope Francis on Tuesday made it simpler and swifter for Catholics to secure a marriage annulment, the most radical such reform for 250 years, and told bishops to be more welcoming to divorced couples.

Under the old norms, it often took years to win an annulment, with hefty legal fees attached. Francis said the procedure should be free and the new rules mean that a marriage might be declared null and void in just 45 days in some cases.

The announcement came the week after Francis signaled a more merciful approach to women who had obtained abortions and was another sign of his drive to shake up the hidebound Roman Catholic Church and try to soften some of its more rigid rules.

In a document known as a Motu Proprio, Latin for "by his own initiative", Francis reaffirmed traditional teaching on the "indissolubility of marriage", making clear that the Vatican was not in any form promoting or sanctioning divorce.

However, he said he would make it easier for separated couples to obtain an annulment -- a ruling whereby the Church decides that a marriage was not valid in the first place because certain prerequisites such as free will, psychological maturity and openness to having children were lacking.

Another blue light special from the pope.

[Oceander]

Bowing to reality, but maintaining the silly fig-leaf that you only get one marriage in life.  I had a friend in law school who went to work for the South Bend diocese doing canon law in things like marriage annulment; even then the contortions they would go through to reach the desired result - annulment - were astonishing.