I have stated here previously that I really don't hold truck with the Roman Catholic churh; that organisation into which I was baptised as an infant, lured to mass with ice cream and which had me convinced for a number of years that the River Peace was a great liberator of cacti.
It seems now that the Vatican has published a new guidebook regarding when the church will allow its patrons to receive an annulment. It's set at 111 pages. (?)
Part of the impetus behind this release, the first updated since 1936, appears to be the fact that where annulments numbered only in the hundreds per year back in the 1960s, there were 46,000 granted by the church in 2002.
Some highlights from the article:
Reasons for nullifying a marriage include impotence, refusal by a spouse to have children and psychological immaturity at the time of marriage.
The church bars divorced Catholics who remarry outside the church from receiving communion, unless they abstain from sex with their new spouses.
The rest of the CBC article is here.
I don't know that I really have a point here other than to shake my head a little...
Two cousins of mine have benefitted from annulments, which amazes me given that it requires papal dispensation. Immaturity is the only logical justification, with so few options to chose from. It also makes me wonder at the status of the children of one of them: you can't quite nullify THEM.
Undoubtedly going straight to hell,
Paula
Posted by: Paula | Tuesday, 08 February 2005 at 02:55 PM
Is there room in that handbasket for two?
Posted by: Simon | Tuesday, 08 February 2005 at 03:01 PM
And how exactly does one quantify Psychological immaturity???? I've been married for 22 years, and I'm convinced HE'S immature...then again, he says the same thing about me...Love the title!!! Penny
Posted by: Penny | Wednesday, 09 February 2005 at 07:24 AM