Pope Francis speeds up marriage annulments for Catholics
Pope Francis has once again implemented a radical change in the practices of the Catholic Church by speeding up and simplifying the process for marriage annulments.
In the past, marriage annulments have been dragged on by automatic appeals, but Pope Francis sought to change this on Tuesday by letting bishops determine when a marriage has been made invalid. The new policy on annulment will take effect starting Dec. 8, which is the beginning of the Holy Year of Mercy, according to ABC News.
"With this fundamental law, Francis has now launched the true start of his reform," ABC quotes Monsignor Pio Vito Pinto, the head of the church's marriage court Roman Rota. "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."
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Pope Francis' reform of the annulment process comes on the wake of his decision to let rank-and-file priests forgive women who have had their unborn child aborted. The pontiff sought to awaken the church's sensitivity to the needs of its faithful members and highlight its merciful character, the report details.
Under the rules of the church, a Catholic has to complete the process of church annulment before he or she can remarry in the church. Once a divorced Catholic remarries outside of the church, that individual will not be allowed to receive Communion and will be labeled as an adulterer, The Los Angeles Times reports.
For a long time, Catholics have been lamenting the long period of time it takes to finalize an annulment. The cost of having a marriage annulled can also reach hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There are various valid reasons for annulment, and they include one spouse's refusal to have children, undisclosed infertility or grave contagious disease of one partner, and coercion into marriage using violence. It could also be that the couple never wanted to stay married for a long time at the beginning of their union. Under the new law, "lack of faith" has been included in the grounds for annulment.
In addition, the new law says the annulment process should be finalized within 45 days. Longer processes should not drag on for more than a year. The new annulment policy, however, is not retroactive and will only be applicable to cases heard after Dec. 8, the report adds.
Pope Francis insists that marriages should still be indissoluble. The new annulment law only aims to simplify the process to help reintegrate the faithful into the church.
