Pope Francis Considers Zero-Cost Charging For Annulment Proceedings

Good news to those who have long been wanting to file an annulment case with the Roman Catholic church. Pope Francis has been reported to be considering extending a zero-cost charging for the procedure, after admitting he had fired a church court official for exuberantly charging annulment seekers.

At a Vatican course about annulments held this week, Pope Francis said that the Roman Catholic church must ensure that marriage annulment processes are efficient and perhaps even free of charge. "Mother church should do justice and say: 'Yes, it's true, your marriage is null. No, your marriage is valid," the pope told participants. But justice seemed to have flown high up there in the clouds it has become a speck. So high that some marriage annulment procedures have become "long and so burdensome, they don't favour (justice) and so people give up."

Pope Francis spoke of the time when, as bishop of Buenos Aires, he fired an unidentified church tribunal official because he told someone that for $10,000 he would "take care of" both church and civil procedures over the annulment. The person has been presumed to be a lawyer. Some people have made a business out of church marriage annulments, he said.

The pope also shared he got sad hearing of the troubles the annulment seekers had to go through, including travelling hundreds of kilometres, even losing days of work just to attend church tribunals. He stressed economic interests must never be attached to spiritual interests, "it is not about God." He said the church's annulment procedures should be made easier, faster and not to mention, cheaper. "The mother church has so much generosity it could provide justice free of charge."

Annulments are a major factor in the Roman Catholic church because it can stop a devout member from taking Communion. Catholics who get divorced in a civil court but failed to get a church annulment from the previous marriage and yet remarried are still considered committing adultery with their new spouse. They are effectively barred from taking Communion.

People have often said getting an annulment from the Roman Catholic church is discouraging because of the lengthy and expensive process. Marriage and annulment had been explosive issues the Roman Catholic bishops discussed in their global bishops' synod at the Vatican less than a month ago.