Three ways to streamline the annulment procedure

One of the Vatican’s top canon lawyers weighs in.

Vatican City:  One of the Vatican’s top canon lawyers at the Synod of Bishops on the Family says the current process for the annulment of marriages in the Catholic Church could be streamlined and expanded to the benefit of very many people whose marriages have broken down. This could be one of the positive fruits of the synod, he said, but it would not be approved until the second synod in 2015.

Cardinal Francis Coccopalmerio (Italy) said this at a Vatican press briefing for the media on Thursday, and outlined three ways in which the annulments process can be streamlined and improved.

The first way is by removing the appeal process and requiring only one judicial decision in the church’s tribunal. The current code of canon law requires the double confirming sentence by church tribunals before the marriage can be declared null. Today, after the first judicial sentence has been issued declaring the marriage is null, there is an automatic judicial appeal. The church cannot declare the annulment of a marriage until the appeal process has confirmed the first decision.

A second way is by not requiring a collegial judicial decision in cases of annulment. Today it is necessary to have three judges to declare the nullity of a marriage, whereas it would be sufficient to have only one judge for this purpose.

The third way is what many synod fathers described as “an administrative procedure” by which the local bishop can declare the annulment of a marriage “for grave and urgent reasons.” This could happen even in the absence of external evidence or witnesses, when the bishop considers the couple as “credible witnesses” to what was the actual situation in their marriage.

“I am very favorable to this third solution; it is often the only way forward,” Cardinal Coccopalmerio stated.

Source: America