Pope simplifies process to annul marriage

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY

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-and-file 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 Francis’ 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 that gets underway in October. Progressive bishops favor a process by which these Catholics could eventually have access to the sacrament if they repent; conservatives say there can be no such wiggle room and that church teaching is clear that a marriage is indissoluble.