In a ‘revolutionary’ change, Pope Francis simplifies marriage-annulment process for Catholics

Pope Francis announced sweeping reforms Tuesday to the Catholic Church's marriage-annulment process, changes that are designed to speed up and simplify the often lengthy procedure.

The changes, according to Vatican experts, appear to be the most far-reaching ones made to the church's annulment process in centuries.

The announcement, containing reforms that will make it easier for Catholics to remarry, comes about a month before a major meeting at the Vatican, where Catholic leadership will examine the church's views on family issues, including divorce and remarriage.

The changes will eliminate a requirement that all annulment decisions get a second judgment and will allow local bishops to expedite the annulment process for some cases. The reforms also expand the local bishops' role in judging nullification proceedings. Although dramatic, the changes do not alter the Catholic Church's teaching that marriages are permanent.

The reforms were announced in two Apostolic Letters from Francis, which, translated from their Latin titles, are called "The Gentle Judge, The Lord Jesus" and "The Meek and Merciful Jesus." They were presented at a news conference Tuesday at the Vatican.

Current Catholic teaching on marriage doesn't recognize divorce. Catholics who are granted a civil divorce and then remarry are ineligible to take communion, a key part of active Catholic life. Instead, a Catholic who wants to end his or her marriage must be granted an annulment, a process that many Catholics believe is too costly and complicated.

In a recent Pew poll, 62 percent of American Catholics said the church should allow divorced Catholics who divorce and remarry without an annulment to receive communion.

An annulment is granted by a Catholic tribunal if it agrees that a marriage originally thought to be valid was actually missing at least one crucial element from the start, meaning that it was never really a true marriage in the first place. The length of the process varies between dioceses, but can take 12 to 18 months, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

One of the reforms implemented by Pope Francis will eliminate the "second instance" of that tribunal, meaning that all couples seeking annulment will have to obtain only one sentence from a single tribunal. "The moral certainty reached by the first judge according to law should be sufficient," the letter reads.

"It's a sweeping reform. It's a dramatic reform," said Chad Pecknold, a theologian at Catholic University. "It's a reform which essentially takes away the whole judicial process for deciding whether a marriage was null or not."

Another reform will reduce the process of that first tribunal down to one judge, Pecknold noted. Formerly, a tribunal consisted of at least two priests and one canon lawyer, who could be either a layperson or clergy.

Pope Francis has changed that, and placed the responsibility of the "first instance" of the tribunal into the hands of a single judge, who must always be clergy. Pecknold added, "a lot of my canon lawyer friends want to quit today."

Austen Ivereigh, a papal biographer and commentator on the Vatican, called it "revolutionary" that Pope Francis has granted bishops the power to nullify a marriage — a power that has rested with church courts. Bishops, he said, could also delegate that power to priests. This will make annulments more accessible, especially in much of the developing world, where Ivereigh said many areas have no church courts.

"This is the most far-reaching reform to the Church's nullity process in 300 years," he added.

Tuesday's announcement is procedural, it makes no change in the way the church sees marriage and its permanent nature. However, Ivereigh said the change shows Francis has been listening to regular Catholics and "the reason for this change is that society has changed. This speeded-up procedure recognizes and reflects a new reality."

He predicted some conservatives would be critical of this change because they will see it undermining the concept of marriages as bonds that cannot be dissolved. The best-known of this group is American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who led the Vatican's supreme court until he was removed by Pope Francis because, Ivereigh said, Burke opposed annulment reform.

Another change announced Tuesday will allow bishops the ability to further expedite the annulment process for some particularly straightforward cases — a process that Pecknold said would allow the bishop to essentially "write a note."

That process could be open to abuse, he added: "The moment that you put in an exception that makes everybody's job easier, guess what everybody's gonna do?" Pope Francis, for his part, acknowledges those concerns in his letters.

"The extent to which an abbreviated process of judgment might put the principle of the indissolubility of marriage at risk, did not escape me," Francis wrote. "Thus, I have desired that, in such cases the bishop himself shall be constituted judge, who, by force of his pastoral office is with Peter the greatest guarantor of Catholic unity in faith and in discipline."

Despite those concerns, the reforms come with a notable silver lining for everyday Catholics seeking to annul their marriages and return to a closer relationship with the church.

"In terms of the average Catholic who is seeking annulment, this makes an already painful situation easier, and that is Pope Francis's intent," Pecknold said. "You can see a clear pastoral eye on this decision. He doesn't want any long waits; he basically wants the decision to come from the bishop."

Francis has spoken before of his desire to reform annulment in the past.

"The sacraments give us grace," he said earlier this year to jurists of the church's final court of appeals for annulments. "And a marriage proceeding" - like an annulment - "touches on the sacrament of marriage."

"How I wish all marriage proceedings were free of charge!" he added.

In August, Francis urged Catholic clergy to keep "open doors" and be more welcoming to divorced and remarried Catholics.