Pope Francis ain't saying 'yes' to divorce

Divorce advocates had better postpone the celebration for later, perhaps for never!  The Pope has not opened the door to divorce, not even a peephole.

What he has done by a "motu proprio" (an issuance at his own instance) is to simplify the canonical process for declarations of nullity.

Both in civil law and in canon law, a declaration of nullity is a judicial decree that from the beginning, appearances, ceremonies, fanfare notwithstanding, there never was a marriage.  And grounds for the declaration of the nullity of marriage are rather narrowly circumscribed.  After all, it is to society's advantage that we take marriage seriously.

Under the present canons of the Church (read: laws), a judgment on first instance that a marriage is void does not yet set parties free from the conjugal union. The judgment has to be affirmed on second instance. That is to say, you needed two courts, a lower court and an appellate court to pronounce nullity.

Under Pope Francis' reform, a second instance is no longer necessary. Very obviously, that speeds up processes. But the grounds for nullity remain the same. The Pope has not decreed new grounds, and the Church will still be vigilant about allowing nullity procedures to be used as some kind of backdoor for divorce.

So, why the dramatic announcement? In the Philippines, our courts have been rather generous in granting decrees of nullity. Truth to tell, Philippine courts have expanded Article 36 -- psychological incapacity -- far beyond the bounds of the original intendment of this new provision of Philippine family law.

For the Filipino Catholic, obtaining a Family Court decree of divorce cannot be the end of the story, if he wants to live as a good Catholic, because the decree of the Family Court has no currency before the Church. So it was that a distinct canonical action had to be filed and, till now, proceedings before a church court could be as protracted as the notoriously long-drawn proceedings before our regular courts.

The good Pope has decreed speedier proceedings: an invitation to Catholics to avail themselves of abbreviated proceedings to be able to obtain canonical decrees of divorce, IF THESE are warranted.  He is not offering these decrees for a song.  It must be repeated: the grounds remain the same.  Only the procedure has been simplified.