Pope more in touch with modern day life

POPE Francis has definitely been one of the most enlightened pontiffs when it comes to understanding and accepting the spirituality inherent in the diversity of all humanity.

The announcement yesterday of a reform in the archaic rules of marriage annulment is a welcome relief to Catholic couples around the world who have divorced and remarried outside the church.

It was the strict Catholic prohibition of divorce that led to the formation of the Anglican Church in the 16th century after Pope Clement refused to annul the marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon.

While non-Catholics might not grasp the significance of the pope’s announcement, for those Catholics whose marriages have irretrievably broken down and who divorced and remarried in civil ceremonies, this relaxation of the annulment law is a huge weight off their shoulders.

So burdensome was the law that even those who remarried were considered by the church to be still married to their first spouse and living in a state of sin.

They were barred from receiving sacraments such as communion – a religious censorship which led to many living under huge clouds of guilt and social approbrium.

Writing about the changes, Pope Francis said it was unfair that spouses should be “long oppressed by darkness of doubt” over whether their marriages could be annulled.

The speeded up procedure will allow bishops to grant annulments directly if both spouses request it.

While Pope Francis has shown he is much more in touch with the challenges of modern life and less judgmental of non-conformist lifestyles than his predecessors, reforms in the church’s antediluvian approach to contraception, homosexuality and the ordination of women as priests and bishops are still a long way away.

But, albeit in baby steps, the leader of the Catholic Church has paved the way for more tolerance and compassion. Whatever our beliefs, we have to agree with the holy man that: “A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold and more just.”