On Tuesday, Pope Francis issued new rules governing the annulment of marriages, the process Catholics have to go through to officially dissolve their marriage and remarry in the Catholic Church. The modifications to canon law are designed to speed up the process for open-and-shut cases, or those where both spouses request the annulment or don't oppose it, and they can be administered by the bishop of each diocese or a priest-judge of his choosing, a reform aimed at dioceses in poorer countries that don't have three-judge church tribunals. The new church regulations also scrap automatic appeals, and allow for at least some annulments free of charge. The annulment process has been criticized as long, expensive, and unduly burdensome, discouraging divorced Catholics from participating in the church and its sacraments.
Pope Francis noted in his new law that marriage is still a permanent union, but added "lack of faith" as a reason why a marriage was never valid in the first place. The new rules aren't meant to make it easier to declare marriages null and void, he said, but rather "the salvation of souls."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
'Underneath the noise, however, there’s an existential crisis'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
2024: the year of distrust in scienceIn the Spotlight Science and politics do not seem to mix
-
The Nutcracker: English National Ballet's reboot restores 'festive sparkle'The Week Recommends Long-overdue revamp of Tchaikovsky's ballet is 'fun, cohesive and astoundingly pretty'
-
Honda and Nissan in merger talksSpeed Read The companies are currently Japan's second and third-biggest automakers, respectively
-
Taylor Swift wraps up record-shattering Eras tourSpeed Read The pop star finally ended her long-running tour in Vancouver, Canada
-
Drake claims illegal boosting, defamationSpeed Read The rapper accused Universal Music of boosting Kendrick Lamar's diss track and said UMG allowed him to be falsely accused of pedophilia
-
'Wicked' and 'Gladiator II' ignite holiday box officeSpeed Read The combination of the two movies revitalized a struggling box office
-
Jussie Smollet conviction overturned on appealSpeed Read The Illinois Supreme Court overturned the actor's conviction on charges of staging a racist and homophobic attack against himself in 2019
-
Quincy Jones, music icon, is dead at 91Speed Read The legendary producer is perhaps best known as the architect behind Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'
-
OJ Simpson, star athlete tried for murder, dead at 76Speed Read The former football hero and murder suspect lost his battle with cancer
-
Momofuku's 'Chili Crunch' trademark uproarSpeed Read The company's attempt to own the sole rights has prompted backlash
