"I am saddened to note that the reform, after more than four years, remains far from being applied in most Italian dioceses," Pope Francis, the bishop of Rome, told other members of the Italian bishops' conference on Monday.

Francis issued the streamlined annulment process in September 2015. It went into effect December that year to coincide with the launch of the Jubilee of Mercy.

The process was enacted with two legal documents issued under the pope's own authority.

One is the Mitis Iudex Dominus Iesus ("The Lord Jesus, a meek judge"), which handles modifications in the Latin Rite's Code of Canon Law.

The other is the Mitis et Misericors Iesus ("Jesus, meek and merciful"), which deals with changes for Eastern Catholic Churches.

The changes include strengthening the local bishop's role, dropping automatic appeals in obvious cases of annulment, and ensuring the process is free of charge.

In his speech to Italian bishops on Monday, Francis called for the "full and immediate application" of the documents, saying the process should be fast, free and characterised by "closeness" to families in difficulty.

"Closeness to wounded families means that judgement, as much as possible, is in the local dioceses without delays and unnecessary prolongation," which will require a "conversion of structures".

"We cannot allow the economic interests of some lawyers or the interest in personal power of some judicial vicars (to slow down the process)," he said.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• The Dialog
• Crux Now
• Image: The Dialog

On Tuesday Francis made it simpler and swifter for Catholics to secure a marriage annulment. This is the most radical such reform for 250 years.

At the same time, Francis told bishops to be more welcoming to divorced couples.

When he was rewriting the appropriate sections of the Latin-rite Code of Canon Law and of the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, Francis said he was not "promoting the nullity of marriages, but the quickness of the processes, as well as a correct simplicity" of the procedures.

He says this means Catholic couples will not be "oppressed by the shadow of doubt" for prolonged periods.

Where it has often taken years and hefty legal fees to annul a marriage, Francis says the new procedure should be free of charge.

In some cases, he says the new rules may mean a marriage might be declared null and void in just 45 days.

Although Francis reaffirms the traditional teaching on the "indissolubility of marriage", and makes it clear that the Vatican is not in any form promoting or sanctioning divorce, he wants to make it easier for separated couples to obtain an annulment.

In these cases, the Church will decide whether a marriage was not valid in the first place because certain prerequisites such as free will, psychological maturity, and openness to having children were lacking.

Source

• Reuters
• The Pilot
• CNN.com

Since Pope Francis announced the dramatic changes to the tribunal system for handling marriage nullity cases in September, the Church's legal community has been frantically trying to prepare itself for the day the changes would take effect, and make no mistake, there has been much to do.

The reforms of Mitis Iudex have been criticised, in some quarters, as an unwarranted and dangerous liberalisation of the process for examining cases of nullity which could seriously jeopardize, even if unintentionally, the indissolubility of marriage, in practice if not in theory.

Some of the concerns about Mitis Iudex were sincere and well founded, others were the product of misunderstanding, and some came from what seemed at times to be deliberate misrepresentations of the content of the reforms and their intent.

As the reforms take effect, it is worth recapping what they are, what concerns have been raised since they were announced, and what steps have already been taken to put them into solid practice.

There were three key procedural changes brought in by Mitis Iudex: the introduction of an abbreviated process for some cases; the abolition of the requirement for a mandatory appeal and a double confirming sentence for all affirmative decisions; and changes to the kind of grounds under which cases could be considered and the standards of proof used in their consideration.

Each of the these three major changes raised a number of serious legal questions, and the last few weeks have been a seemingly endless round of canonical conferences, articles, and letters of clarification from Rome.

But the good news is that some of the major points of confusion, you could even say conflict, have been resolved. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Herald — the article is by Edward Condon, a canon lawyer working for tribunals in a number of dioceses.
• Image: Vassallomalta