http://wdtprs.com/blog/2015/09/pope-fra ... nnulments/
... After reading through the new rules and after reading the interventions of the presenters at the presser this morning, and after talking with two trusted canonists by phone and after reading a few reactions online, I have to take seriously the summation point made by the canonist Kurt Martens, professor of Canon Law at the Catholic University of America. He was cited in today’s WaPo. Martens said that essentially the Church is providing a path that looks like the Catholic version of no-fault divorce. ...
BTW… in today’s L’Osservatore Romano, Msgr. Pinto (head of the commission who put this together) has argued that this is a reform of mercy for “the poor”, and the “the poor” are the divorced and remarried.
PS: I wonder if anyone will notice that this procedure will probably favor men who dump their wives and kids for a younger model.
One of the comments in that blog reads:
It is very hard in my mind to distinguish this new process from ecclesiastical divorce in the Orthodox Church. As a convert I feel this weakens the Catholic Church’s apologetics when it comes to faith and morals. I know many ex Episcopalians / Anglicans like myself who chose Rome over Constantinople despite the liturgical and other insanity because of the Catholic Church’s defense of the moral law. In many ways I feel like this is a concession saying the Orthodox were right all along.
