A leading canon lawyer explains how a valid marriage in the Catholic Church’s tradition must meet three requirements. Rev Prof Michael Mullaney, President at Ireland’s national seminary, St Patrick’s College Maynooth and a leading Canon Lawyer said the couple party to such a marriage “must-have capacity (ie the requisite freedom and knowledge to give such Read more
Father Tom Hartman’s first call was as a father. His second was as a Catholic priest. Hartman’s path to the cloth is one he loosely calls his resurrection story. It’s not a resurrection of mortal death, but the ending of one path and beginning of another he’d always felt called to. He married young. After Read more
There are so many lessons that someone going through a divorce needs to learn, but three of the most powerful (and difficult) lessons I’ve learned are these. The label “divorced” does not define a person. It’s an event that happened—terrible as it is—but it in no way is the sum total of who a person Read more
A working group involving the Vatican and Italian dioceses has been set up to interpret Pope Francis’s reform of the marriage annulment process. As part of the reform, Pope Francis repealed aspects of a motu proprio from Pope Pius XI that set up regional tribunals in Italy. In the wake of Francis’s reforms, the Roman Read more
The Catholic Church in Mexico has been accused of bending its own rules on marriage in the case of a politician’s future wife. At issue is the annulment of the previous marriage of actor Angélica Rivera, who became Enrique Peña Nieto’s wife 19 months before he was elected president. The Guardian reported documents obtained by Read more
While December 8 was being marked in the wider Church as the beginning of the Year of Mercy, for canon lawyers it is, first and foremost, the day the reforms of Mitis Iudex come into force. Since Pope Francis announced the dramatic changes to the tribunal system for handling marriage nullity cases in September, the Read more
New moves announced by Pope Francis reform and simplify the process for getting a marriage annulment. Except for the just payment of Marriage Tribunal staff, the reforms make the annulment process free and remove the need of a second review that the marriage was invalid. Pope Francis has also sped up the process leading to Read more
“The concern of Pope Francis is in first place for the good of all the faithful, especially those whose situations have been a cause of difficulty in living the Christian life as fully as possible”. Catholic annulments look to many to be a simple Catholic divorce. Divorce says that the reality of marriage was there Read more
A letter from Catherine of Aragon asking a pope to block King Henry VIII’s attempts to annul their marriage is to be auctioned in Paris. The letter is part of about 1500 documents written by women throughout history which are going under the auctioneer’s hammer next week. Catherine’s letter is addressed to Cardinal Francisco de Read more
One third of divorced and remarried Catholics, who have not had their first marriage annulled, receive Communion, according to a Tablet survey. More than 4300 people from around the world completed a questionnaire on www.thetablet.co.uk between 3 and 14 October about what they’d like to see from the synod on the family. Nearly 85 per Read more