[NKP_Vet]

"Cardinal Kasper said it would be up to members of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family in October and the world Synod of Bishops in 2015 to discuss concrete proposals for helping divorced and civilly remarried Catholics participate more fully in the life of the church".

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The real outrage has been how easy it has been to get annulments.

It has seemed like all you have to do is pay enough money.

[laweeks]

My ex-wife died a few years ago . . . wonder where I stand since I got remarried out of the Church. Could of had an annulment when she was alive, but I didn’t have the money or time to go thru all that.

[Albion Wilde]

Cardinal Kasper said it would be up to members of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family in October and the world Synod of Bishops in 2015 to discuss concrete proposals for helping divorced and civilly remarried Catholics participate more fully in the life of the church.
A possible avenue for finding those proposals, he said, would be to develop "pastoral and spiritual procedures" for helping couples convinced in conscience that their first union was never a valid marriage. The decision cannot be left only to the couple, he said, because marriage has a public character, but that does not mean that a juridical solution -- an annulment granted by a marriage tribunal -- is the only way to handle the case.

Interesting. What could be such a scenario? I'm thinking possibly of the marriages made in highly stressful situations, such as the WW2- and Vietnam-era marriages of draftees about to go off to war, or people whose partners later "decided" they were gay...

[WriteOn]

Annulment is the recognition of reality, no? A marriage is de facto not a marriage even before the church recognizes it is not. Those who know that they do not have a marriage or did not make a valid marriage, do not sin thereby and I do not know anyone who teaches that they do. The forms and forums only to ensure your conscience. They do not change the state of reality.

[Salvation]

I disagree with Kasper. This needs to stay as it is. If people can’t stay married and get a divorce how can we know that they will keep promises to not remarry?