Catholic Divorce

In today’s column I am copying the question that journalists put to Pope Francis on the flight back from the United States to Rome about “Catholic divorce,” a subject that is certainly of interest to many people.

“Holy Father, you obviously cannot anticipate the debate of the Synod fathers, we know that perfectly well, but we wanted to know whether, before the Synod, in your pastor’s heart you truly want a solution for the divorced and remarried. We also want to know whether your Motu Proprio on the regulation of annulments has closed this debate for you. And finally, what do you say to those who fear that this reform creates, de facto, a so-called Catholic divorce? Thank you.”

Pope Francis: I’ll start with the last one. In the reform of the processes, of the procedure, I closed the door to the administrative route, which was the route through which divorce could have come in. And one can say that those who think of a Catholic divorce are mistaken, because this latest document has closed the door to the divorce that could have come in, more easily, through the administrative route. There will always be the judicial route.

Then, continuing with the third, the document: this was requested by the majority of the Synod fathers at last year’s Synod, to speed up the processes, because there are processes that lasted ten, fifteen years, one sentence and then another sentence, and an appeal and another appeal, and it never ended.

The double sentence, when it was valid and there was no appeal, was introduced by Pope Lambertini, Benedict XIV, because in Central Europe, I won’t name the country, there were some abuses, and to stop them he introduced this (the double sentence), but it is not something essential to the process. Processes change, jurisprudence changes and is always improved; at that moment it was urgent to do it. Then Pius X wanted to speed things up and did something, but he did not have the time or the possibility to do it. The Synod fathers asked for this, the speeding up of the process of matrimonial nullity, and I’ll end with that. This document, this Motu Proprio, makes the processes quicker, but it is not a divorce, because marriage is indissoluble when it is a sacrament, and the Church cannot change this. It is doctrine. It is an indissoluble sacrament.

The legal procedure is to prove that what seemed to be a sacrament was not a sacrament, because of a lack of freedom, for example, or a lack of maturity, or mental illness. There are so many reasons that lead, after study and investigation, to saying “no, there was no sacrament there,” for example because that person was not free. An example that is not common now, but in some sectors of society it is common, at least it was in Buenos Aires: the marriage when the bride was pregnant, they have to get married. In Buenos Aires I strongly advised priests, I almost forbade them, to celebrate a marriage in this condition. We call it a hurried marriage, to keep up appearances, and the child is born. Some turn out well, but there is no freedom, and then it goes badly, they separate, and “I was forced to marry because I had to cover up this situation,” and this is a cause for nullity. There are so many causes for nullity; you can look them up on the internet, they are all there, there are so many.

Then the problem of the divorced who are in a second union. Read the Instrumentum Laboris, the text being discussed. To me it seems a bit simplistic to say that the Synod, that the solution for these people, is that they can receive communion. That is not the solution, not the only one. What the Instrumentum Laboris proposes is much more, and the problem of the new union of the divorced is not the only problem either. In the Instrumentum Laboris there are many: for example, young people do not marry, they do not want to marry, and that is a pastoral problem for the Church. Another problem is affective maturity for marriage. Another problem is faith: “I believe this is forever, yes, yes, yes, I believe,” but do I believe? Preparation for marriage: I often think that to become a priest there are eight years of preparation, and then, since it is not definitive, the Church can remove your clerical state; yet to marry for a whole lifetime there are four courses, four sessions. Something isn’t right. The Synod must think carefully about how to prepare people for marriage; it is one of the difficult things. But everything is listed in the Instrumentum Laboris. I am glad you asked me this question about Catholic divorce: that does not exist. Either there was no marriage, and that is nullity, it did not exist; or, if it existed, it is indissoluble. That is clear.”

Thank you, Holy Father, for this clarification.

Let us now pray for the Synod on the Family, which begins this coming October 4, so that the Holy Spirit may enlighten the Synod fathers and its conclusions may help Catholic families throughout the world to live happily along the path that our Lord Jesus Christ taught us.