Last week the Diocese of Providence announced that those who petition for a declaration of marriage nullity — commonly called an annulment — may do so free of charge. It is yet another sign of the Church’s efforts to assist those in difficult situations.
A declaration of nullity is a judgment of the Church that what appeared to be a valid marriage was not in fact a valid marriage from the very beginning. Some element necessary for a marriage, free consent, the intention of permanence, an openness to have children, etc. was not present at the time of the celebration of the marriage.
Pope Francis recently issued new guidelines for how the process for declaring nullity should take place. One piece of this process is that it should be generally free of charge to the parties involved.
The commonly heard complaint that an annulment could be too costly was always false. No one was ever turned away for an inability to help defray the costs of running the marriage tribunal.
However, this decision to ensure that the nullity process is funded from other sources — and those petitioning will be charged nothing — hopes to make clearer the Church’s desire to reach out to anyone who feels marginalized.
A declaration of nullity is a question of truth: did God really join these two people together? An annulment is not something one simply obtains or still less purchases. Thus, free of charge, it is a question of the truth of the matter: were these two people ever actually validly married?
All of this is intended to be faithful to the Lord’s words about the value of marriage and the need to assist those in trouble.
