Not a religious question

Your "facts" are ALL simply incorrect without exception. With regard to hypocrisy: The Church is full of sinful individuals from the laity to the clergy, but as you'll remember Christ came for sinners. However, the Church is consistent in Her teachings. You appear not to understand them.

An annullment is not a "Catholic divorce." Failure to meet certain preconditions render a marriage null or invalid - that is to say, the marriage never took place. For example, someone who is mentally ill or unable to consummate their marriage cannot licitly contract a marriage. A person entering marriage with the idea that he need not be faithful or intends never to have children cannot licitly contract a marriage. Nor is a person who is forced to marry able to give the free consent necessary to contract marriage.

Annullments are not granted for couples who find they have "irreconciliable differences" - or even for those who are the victims of abuse, as sad as those cases are. The duration of the marriage has no effect on the nullifying conditions present at the time of the wedding ceremony.

Costs associated with the annullment process ($200 - $1000 on the highest end) go to pay canon lawyers (who are often lay people) to investigate the case and process paper work. They deserve to be paid for their work. If expert (psychiatrists, physicians, etc.) investigation into the case is necessary, additional fees may be incurred. However, any fees may be paid in installments or be waived entirely depending on a individual's financial situation. As well, some dioceses charge nothing at all for the annullment process.

Furthermore, divorced Catholics are NOT excommunicated. They may continue to receive the Sacrament so long as they have not attempted to contract another marriage within or outside of the Church, unless their marriage has been investigated and determined to be invalid.

The attitude of the Church with regard to marriage is hardly cavalier. Have some annullments been granted injudiciously? Yes. But it is important to know that the primary responsibility for assessing the validity of a marriage lies with the couple who self-report regarding the character of their marriage. Annullments are not granted from the Church infallibly. If a couple misrepresents the facts of their marriage, they may be granted an annullment in spite of having been validly married, but they will be accountable to final Judgement for their misrepresentations and any future attempts to contract marriage.

Local Catholic churches are not closing because of what the Catholic Church teaches. Church communities and seminaries where the truth and the Faith are strictly upheld find themselves expanding above and beyond physical capacity.

Finally, the Catholic Church's current policy with regard to sexual misconduct on the part of those in Holy Orders is indeed to excommunicate and laicize them. Previous policies were based upon an insufficient understanding of the nature of sexual abusers. Moreover, the occurrence of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church is far lower than that which occurs in the population at large or within other Christian denominations.

I don't write this all for your sake News4U. I am simply hoping that others, who by seeing these lies repeated, are not miseducated or turned away from the Catholic Church based on falsity and half-truths.

Yeah, I know what you mean, news4u...Catholics and their Church are really bad people. WALK THE PLANK, YOU MORON!!!! AARRGHH!!

The Vatican will soon disappear! She is seeing the last of her days, because God on earth is uncovering her fornication, terrorism!
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news4u, the church handled the priest abuse situation badly, that is true and I agree with you. Everything else that you said is FALSE. An annulment is an exhaustive process, takes a long time, is not always granted and can cost NOTHING.
The information that you give is completely wrong and can easily be proven.
This is not opinion, this is fact. Your argument is not valid when based on information which is incorrect.

I will restrict this post to you assertion about annulments. The Church is never "quick" to give one. Instead, the married couple must go through a great deal to prove, to the satisfaction of the Church, that the annulment is warranted. If they can't, the annulment is not granted., The Church never - repear, never - allows divorces. Why that is, is not at issue. All you Church-bashers are quick to point out the wrongs done by the Church (and, I agree with most of you when posting about how the Church "handled" child abusing Priests), but you never - repeat, never - remember just how much good the Church has done and continues to do.
"The democracy will cease to exist when the government takes from those who would work and gives to those who would not." - Thomas Jefferson.