Divorce

I have friends who waited for the longest time for the church to allow them to divorce their spouses. Some of them became free only when their spouses died. But those who are still waiting for their freedom from “bondage,” as they describe their state, are constantly reminded that marriage is forever, that marriage is made in heaven, and no man can put it asunder. And so couples suffer the pain of living together under one roof but not speaking to each other, or wishing one of them was dead.

Bills in Congress asking for the passage of a divorce law have dragged on for decades, and may not see passage under a male-dominated house of legislature.

One recalls the president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas telling Sen. Pia Cayetano, a staunch supporter of the divorce bill, that divorce only encourages a married couple to no longer work out their differences.

On the senator’s statement that the Philippines’ not having a divorce law is nothing to be proud of, the prelate said, “Neither is it something for which we should be apologetic. That all countries of the world save ours have a divorce law is no compelling reason to have it.”

The prelate said further: “If a spouse is oppressive and cruel, a woman could avail of legal separation or annulment of voidable marriages.” He said nullity of marriage because of psychological incapacity is also available under the Constitution.

He added that one reason why some people are advancing a divorce law is because they want “another go at marriage” despite failing at first. He likened the situation to a person test-driving a car and then getting a replacement if the first car proves unsatisfactory.

“It is plainly dehumanizing to both spouses to allow for a test-run, through a first marriage, and then grant the possibility of a replacement of spouses should the test fail.”

So for the archbishop to compare spouses to having a test-run, through a first marriage, then finding a replacement of spouses shows his lack of understanding of the impact of divorce on the spouses and their children.

One is aware, too, of the agonizing effect of separated couples entering into marriage with other persons. They are considered by the church as committing adultery and living in sin. Added to that is society’s looking down especially on separated women. And still, there is that ominous feeling of not being allowed to take communion because of one’s status.

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Like gentle soothing showers for people in such predicaments is Pope Francis, that well-loved maverick man of the Lord, saying that divorced and remarried Catholics are still part of the Church and are not in fact excommunicated.

In a Wednesday general audience last month, the Pope said: “People who started a new union after the defeat of their sacramental marriage are not all excommunicated, and they absolutely must not be treated that way.”

“Though their unions are contrary to the sacrament of marriage, the church, as a mother, seeks the good and salvation of all her children,” he said.

There still remain constraints, though, on divorced and remarried couples.

The Pope, in a series of talks he has been giving on the family, acknowledged that there was no easy way to resolve the conflict between divided families and the Roman Catholic Church’s stance on divorce, the New York Times said.

CNN said that Catholics, who are divorced and remarried, while they are not excommunicated from the Church, are barred from receiving communion. “This is not a new indication. He is saying what the Gospel says. He did not mention the possibility of opening the confession or the communion to them.”

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And the latest good news coming from the Vatican is that Pope Francis reforms marriage annulments, making it easier for thousands of divorced and remarried Catholics “living in sin to rejoin the Church.”

According to a story written by a Vatican writer, Pope Francis has “radically reformed the Catholic Church’s process for annulling marriages, allowing fast-track decisions and removing automatic appeals in a bid to speed up the procedure.”

“As the Catholic Church does not recognize divorce, it’s hoped the move will prevent members from divorcing their first partner outside of their church and then remarrying in sin.

“For those couples wishing to separate within the strictures of the church, this leaves only an annulment, which has long been considered an extremely cumbersome and costly procedure.

“Pope Francis has reformed the church’s procedures for marriage annulments in a new working document. Here he is pictured addressing a crowd at the Vatican on Sunday.

Pope Francis had written the document, known as a Motu Proprio in Latin for “by his own initiative,” that changes the way Catholics get annulments.

In the document, Francis insisted that “marriage remains an indissoluble union and that the new regulations aren’t meant to help to end them. Rather, he said, the reform is aimed at speeding up and simplifying the process so that the faithful can find justice.”

“The overall aim of the reform, he said, ‘is the salvation of souls.’”

The biggest reform involves a new fast-track procedure, handled by a bishop, that can be used when both spouses request an annulment or don’t oppose it. It can also be used when other proof makes a more drawn out investigation unnecessary.

It calls for the process to be completed within 45 days.

According to the story, another reform is the removal of the automatic appeal after the first decision is made. Appeals are still possible, but they are no longer automatic – a simplification that has been used in the United States for many years.

The reform also allows the local bishop, in places where a three-judge tribunal isn’t available, to be the judge himself or to delegate the handling of the cases to a single priest-judge with two assistants.

The simplified measure is aimed at providing Catholic couples with recourse to annulments in poorer parts of the world, or places where the

Catholic Church doesn’t have the resources or manpower to have fully functioning tribunals.

Francis also called for the fees to be waived, except for the ”just payment of tribunal personnel.” It is reported that costs of annulment procedures can reach to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A successful annulment ruling requires evidence that a marriage was not valid because prerequisites, such as free will, psychological maturity and openness to having children, were lacking. 

However, making it easier for divorced couples to receive Church annulments will allow them to return to the sacraments. 

The new procedures follow the pope’s appointment last September of an 11-member commission of lawyers and theologians to propose reform of the process.

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