Chancellor of the Diocese of Providence Father Timothy Reilly explains reforms for marriage annulments ordered by Pope Francis. Photo by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
WPRO News and The Associated Press
Pope Francis has radically reformed the Catholic Church’s process for annulling marriages, allowing for fast-track decisions and removing automatic appeals in a bid to speed up and simplify the procedure.
Francis issued a new law today regulating how bishops around the world determine when a fundamental flaw has made a marriage invalid. Catholics must get this church annulment if they want to remarry in the church.
But the process has long been criticized for being complicated, costly and out of reach for many Catholics.
The biggest reform involves a new fast-track procedure, handled by the bishop himself, that can be used when both spouses request an annulment. It can also be used when other proof makes a more drawn-out investigation unnecessary.
“The whole point of this is to gather the people, so that those who’ve kind of fallen off the wayside, those who feel forgotten, will know that they’ve got recourse,” said Father Timothy Reilly, Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Providence.
“And, hopefully, without throwing out the teachings of the church, still affirming we can do this better, we can be more available, we can meet the people where they are, and walk them through the painful side of the annulment,” said Fr. Reilly.
He said there were about 375 ‘referrals’ for annulments in the Diocese of Providence over the past three years. Of those, 235 were granted, about 40 were not granted, in nearly another 100 case, the applications or the process was not completed.
“This is hopefully going to draw the person closer to the Church, through that frustration, thru the guilt, through that pain,” he said.
Father Reilly said the administrative cost of annulment was reduced several years ago to about $500, and he doesn’t see that changing, but he adds, the length of the process will likely be streamlined to about one to two years.
