Posted on 11/07/2014 10:31:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis said the church's marriage annulment process should be more efficient and perhaps even free of charge, and he decried any attempts to exploit it for profit.
"Some procedures are so long and so burdensome, they don't favor (justice), and people give up," the pope said. "Mother church should do justice and say: 'Yes, it's true, your marriage is null. No, your marriage is valid.' But justice means saying so. That way, they can move on without this doubt, this darkness in their soul."
The pope made his remarks Nov. 5, in a meeting with diocesan officials and canon lawyers enrolled in a course offered by the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal primarily responsible for hearing requests for marriage annulments.
Pope Francis said participants at the Oct. 5-19 Synod of Bishops on the family had expressed a desire to "streamline the process" of judging requests for annulments, and he noted that he had recently established a special commission to do so.
As an example of the burdens faced by those seeking annulments, the pope recalled that a tribunal he oversaw as archbishop of Buenos Aires exercised jurisdiction over dioceses as far as 150 miles away.
"It is impossible to imagine that simple, common people should go to the tribunal. They have to take a trip, they have to miss days of work, also the cost, so many things," the pope said. "They say, 'God will understand, I'll move on this way, with this burden on my soul.'"
Pope Francis warned that annulment cases must not fall within the "framework of business," which he described as an all-too-frequent occurrence.
"I am not talking about anything unusual. There have been public scandals," he said.
Apparently referring to his time in Buenos Aires, the pope recalled: "I had to dismiss one person from the tribunal, some time ago, who said: 'I'll handle both proceedings, civil and ecclesiastical, for 10,000 dollars.'"
Noting that some participants at the synod had called for making the annulment process free of charge, Pope Francis said "we will have to see," but added that, "when the spiritual is attached to an economic interest, this is not from God."
Pope Francis has related difficulties with the annulment process to the situation of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics whose predicament he has said exemplifies a general need for mercy in the church today.
According to church law, such Catholics may not receive Communion unless they obtain an annulment of their first, sacramental marriage or abstain from sexual relations, living with their new partners as "brother and sister."
A proposal by German Cardinal Walter Kasper to allow some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion without meeting either of those conditions was one of the most controversial topics at October's synod and is likely to come up again at the world synod on the family in October 2015.
That’s what Henry VIII said.
One country I know where divorce is not recognized is the Philippines.
Philippine law, in general, does not provide for divorce inside the Philippines.
The only exception is with respect to Muslims, who are allowed to divorce in certain circumstances. For those not of the Muslim faith, the law only allows annulment of marriages.
However, there are SO MANY ANNULMENTS among people that I know that they might as well have one.
I think this, the difficulty of getting divorced and still being able to call oneself a Good Catholic, is one of the reasons King Henry IIIV broke away and promoted himself as head of the Church of England. Divorce has lost most of it’s presumed stigma in today’s world.
wow...that's a racket.
Do you really want to understand something, or are you just looking for an excuse to slam the church? I mean, let’s be honest here ...
I find the process to be okay. It forces one to evaluate what happened, how you got there, and how the marrage went. Then, it goes through the process. If for some reason, it is denied, appeals to Rome can start to accumulate cost.
Yes it is.
It has been a recurring scandal for centuries.
Worse in some times and places than others.
I assume if the monarch couldn’t follow Roman Church rule, he decided to change their numbering scheme as well .....
Why shouldn’t Fred the Janitor be treated just the same as The Kennedys?
When my wife and I went through this process circa 1979 because of her previous marriage to a wife-beating so and so-two non-Catholics married in a non-Catholic church-there was no cost upfront or otherwise.
It took awhile, and I’ll always be convinced part of that was our parish priest didn’t get the ball rolling until we started showing up for Mass every week, but, her prior marriage was declared null and void and we are considered married by the Catholic Church.
And this even though we didn’t wait and got married in one of those Protestant churches named after a street before getting married again in the Catholic Church three years or so later when approval came.
I was told it would cost about $500. Not an exhorbitant price.
How about applying the same cost standard to weddings?
Will the Kennedys still be able to pay for express service?
The mere fact that the church charges for this is mind boggling. I was not fully aware of this practice by the rcc.
But now that I am, i guess this is more of the "tradition" the rcc clings to. I can see why you wouldn't want to give up this little slush fund.
Yep. Same here.
“That’s what Henry VIII said.”
His only cost a few uprisings, a half-millennium long schism (so far), decades of backwardness, and terrible abuse of the poor. Other than that it was cheap.
Annulment is stupid
Pretending that a marriage is happening is just dumb. It did happen and you cannot change the past.
“The mere fact that the church charges for this is mind boggling. I was not fully aware of this practice by the rcc.”
It doesn’t charge those who can’t pay. The fee never comes close to actually covering cost. It is almost nominal. 1 Timothy 5:17-18.
“I can see why you wouldn’t want to give up this little slush fund.”
That comment is terribly ignorant of the facts. I know the members of a local tribunal. There is no slush fund. What they ask for in fees - which the poor do not have to pay - comes NOWHERE near recouping their costs in photocopying and office costs alone. I’m not kidding. I know someone who received an annulment after going through the entire process and she never paid a dime because she had no money.
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