Revised Annulment Process

For John, BLUF:  A Church not too rigid, but willing to identify sin and also those sinned against.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

From The Boston Pilot, the newspaper of record for the Diocese of Boston, Mr Christopher S Pineo writes "Judicial Vicar Explains Changes to Annulment Process".

Of course, the first question is "what is a Judicial Vicar"?  Sure enough, Wikipedia has an answer.

In the Roman Catholic Church, a judicial vicar is an officer of the diocese who has ordinary power to judge cases in the diocesan ecclesiastical court.

This is about the Holy Father issuing a letter to the Church, saying "lets clean up this annulment thing and help those who are suffering and shouldn't be.

Judicial Vicar Father Mark O'Connell, head of the Metropolitan Tribunal of the Archdiocese of Boston, explained changes to the annulment process announced by Pope Francis, in a Sept. 8 interview with The Pilot.

Of course the answer is to read the article to see what is new.

What is not new is speed.  I remember, back around 1976, wanting my friend "X" to be the chairman of our Parish Council, in Naples, Italy.  However, he was married to one of my CCD teachers,♠ who had been divorced.  The situation was one of those special circumstances listed in the article and our Diocese, which, being the the military, was the Diocese of Brooklyn, turned the whole case in about two months.♥  We then had a beautiful wedding in a local chapel, officiated by a Priest from Rome who was one of the Confessors at Saint Peters.

What is new is that the speed of Brooklyn will now be seen world wide.  And, no, it isn't just the Rich and the Kennedy's who can get annulments.♦  It is also you and me.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  I was the volunteer Director of Religious Education for the Naval Support Activity Catholic Chapel Program.
♥  And that was before the Internet and we had only Snail Mail for moving the paperwork back and forth across the Atlantic, albeit by air.
♦  Of course, rich and Kennedy may often go together.