Pope eases process for annulments
Francis’ changes designed to simplify lengthy procedure.
— Pope Francis radically reformed the process for annulling marriages Tuesday, overhauling 300 years of church practice by creating a new fast-track annulment and doing away with an automatic appeal that often slowed the process down.
The move, which came a week after he said he was letting all rank-andfile priests grant absolution to women who have had abortions, was further evidence of his desire to make the church more responsive to the needs of ordinary faithful.
The new law on annulments goes into effect Dec. 8, the start of the Holy Year of Mercy, a yearlong jubilee during which the pope hopes to emphasize the merciful side of the church. It will speed up and simplify the annulment process by placing the onus squarely on bishops around the world to determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid.
A Catholic needs a church annulment to remarry in the church, and a divorced Catholic who remarries civilly without one is considered an adulterer living in sin and is forbidden from receiving Communion.
The Communion issue is at the center of debate at the upcoming synod of bishops, a three-week meeting in October. Progressive bishops favor a process by which these Catholics could eventually have access to the sacra- ment if they repent; conservatives say there can be no such wiggle room and that church teaching is clear that a marriage is indissoluble.
Catholics have long complained that it can take years to get an annulment, if they can get one at all. Costs can reach into the hundreds or thousands of dollars for legal and tribunal fees, though some dioceses have waived their fees.
“With this fundamental law, Francis has now launched the true start of his reform,” said Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, the head of the Roman Rota, the church’s marriage court. “He is putting the poor at the center — that is the divorced, remarried who have been held at arms’ length — and asking for bishops to have a true change of heart.”
Reasons for granting annulments vary, including that the couple never intended the marriage to last or that one spouse didn’t want children.
Francis’ biggest reform involves the new fasttrack procedure, which will be handled by the local bishop and can be used when both spouses request an annulment or don’t oppose it.
Previously, most people seeking annulments needed to go before a three-judge panel unless a regional bishop’s conference gave a bishop permission to hear the case himself or to appoint one judge to handle it. The new law makes that an immediate option, meaning annulments should be easier to obtain in dioceses that don’t have enough priests to make up a three-judge panel, which is especially common in poor countries.