Item from the Smart
Marriages Archive, reproduced in the Divorce Statistics
Collection
POPE, IN ADDRESS TO US BISHOPS, BLASTS NUMBER OF ANNULMENTS
VATICAN CITY (CWNews.com) - Pope John Paul II, meeting with a delegation
of US bishops on Saturday,
expressed his dissatisfaction with the number of annulments being granted
to Catholics. US Catholics receives
a disproportionately greater number of annulments each year.
In audience with bishops from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and
Wyoming, the Holy Father said
that annulments should be a last resort. "The indissolubility of marriage
is a teaching that comes from Christ
himself," he said, "and the first duty of pastors and pastoral
workers is
therefore to help couples overcome
whatever difficulties arise. The referral of matrimonial cases to the
tribunal should be a last resort."
The Pontiff also warned that easy availability of annulments could cause
the faithful to misunderstand a
declaration of nullity as "divorce under a different name." He
also
affirmed that the tribunal judge must be
convinced of the "moral certainty" of the existence of the nullity,
and
not just the probability that it exists.
He also said that, when determining if a psychological problem rendered
a
person incapable of contracting a
valid marriage, the tribunal must make use of a psychiatrist or
psychologist "who shares a Christian
anthropology in accordance with the Church's understanding of the human
person."
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