Article: A VOW TO MOVE ON CATHOLIC CHURCH UPDATES THE ANNULMENT PROCESS

The pew-like benches in the once-austere marble lobby have been replaced with brocaded furniture, along with oversized art books, the strains of classical music, and a bowl of peppermints.

The hearing room, in which five priest-lawyers used to stare down at the Catholic who dared to seek an annulment, has been reconstructed so that each petitioner now sits on a white sofa in a room with flowers and an imitation Rothko painting.

The battery of priests who once sat in judgment over the failed marriages of Catholic couples now includes lay men and women.

And now, in what is apparently a first-in-the-world move, the Archdiocese of Boston has hired a children's advocate to join the staff of its ...

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