THE Roman Catholic Church holds that marriage between Christians is more than a social institution or a physical bond. In its view, it is a sacrament: a spiritual union that bestows supernatural gifts on the marriage partners. Moreover, it is indissoluble. As Jesus Christ told the Pharisees, "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder." Divorce, the church concludes, is an evil: civil divorce, but not remarriage, is permitted only to those Catholics who have been allowed to live apart by ecclesiastical courts. For a Catholic who wants to remarry and remain in the church, the only escape from an intolerable marriage is to receive a declaration of nullity from a church tribunal—a decree that says, in effect, that a valid marriage did not exist in the first place.
Last week U.S. Catholics learned that, for them at least, the antiquated, labyrinthine annulment procedures will finally be simplified and shortened. With Rome's approval, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops announced that the process, which often took several years, and sometimes as many as 20, can now be completed under the new procedures in less than eight months. To help clear clogged tribunal dockets, and for other "grave reasons," a single judge rather than a panel of three may now be permitted to hear a case. Some petitioners will no longer have to face double jeopardy. If the facts of a case are clear enough after the first decision, the church may now waive the hitherto mandatory requirement that a second trial, in another court, confirm the decision of the first. Though the concessions were moderate and applied only to the U.S. for a three-year trial period, they seemed designed to mollify a growing chorus of protest—much of it from critics within the church—against the entire annulment process.
Two years ago, Monsignor Stephen J. Kelleher, then presiding judge of the New York archdiocesan marriage court, caused an ecclesiastical stir when he suggested that an individual should have the right in conscience to decide whether he might civilly divorce, remarry and responsibly remain a participating communicant in the Catholic Church. Now, such suggestions are not uncommon. A group of Catholic churchmen meeting in Germany last summer acknowledged that the ideal of permanent marriage is not easily achieved in practice and that Catholics involved in successful second marriages should not be denied the sacraments of the church, as canon law now requires. One American canonist in Rome notes that the law does not work anyway, since it frequently proves no deterrent to civil divorce. "The old penalties—excommunication, suspension, interdicts—have less and less meaning or effect today," he says.