The process still may be lengthy and dredge up painful memories, but getting a marriage annulled by the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will no longer cost a dime.
Bishop David Zubik announced Wednesday the Pittsburgh diocese eliminated all fees for annulments — a move lauded by church members and triggered by remarks from Pope Francis. The change is effective immediately.
“My staff and I have long dreamed of this move,” Zubik said. “Our dear Pope Francis inspired us to act now. He has called for marriage tribunals to ‘do justice freely, as we have freely been forgiven by Jesus Christ.' ”
Catholic annulments are declarations that a marriage was not spiritually binding, making it invalid according to church law. Annulments can only happen once a civil divorce is final. Annulments are unnecessary for divorcees who choose not to remarry, but Catholics who remarry without annulments are prohibited from the sacrament of Communion and from becoming godparents.
“You receive an annulment so you can get married in the church again,” said the Rev. Thomas Kunz, judicial vicar for the Pittsburgh diocese.
Across Pennsylvania, annulment fees range from $50 to $800. Churches say that offsets the actual cost — for things such as canon lawyers, auditors, judges, defenders of bond briefs, psychological assessments and appeals fees — which can exceed $1,000. Most dioceses offer financial aid for low-income petitioners.
Pittsburgh church officials had been collecting about $120,000 annually in annulment fees — but that's only about one-third the full cost, Kunz said. The average fee was $650, though it sometimes was as low as $50 for someone who had been married by a justice of the peace.
Moving forward, the Pittsburgh diocese will cover annulment costs through a combination of grants from a recent capital campaign and operating funds through its Parish Share program.
“Practically speaking, we do need money to function, but we don't want that to be the barrier,” Kunz said. “I don't want someone's spiritual life to suffer because of having to pay a few hundred dollars.”
By axing annulment fees, Pittsburgh joins the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, which hasn't charged its members for annulments since the late 1980s, spokesman Tony DeGol said.
“We are very happy and proud to continue this tradition,” DeGol said.
The Diocese of Greensburg, which includes Armstrong, Fayette, Indiana and Westmoreland counties, handles about 100 cases per year and charges a $275 fee, spokesman Jerry Zufelt said. Greensburg has received about $60,500 in annulment fees in the past four years, but the bulk of the fees pay for processing in Philadelphia.
Zufelt said the Greensburg diocese will review its annulment fee structure based on deliberations at the Synod of Families, a summit of world bishops that Pope Francis scheduled for this fall.
In Diocese of Erie, which spans 13 counties, petitioners pay $450, and the diocese picks up the rest of the $1,300 tab, spokeswoman Anne-Marie Welsh said.
“Our tribunal has always reduced or waived the fee for anyone who cannot afford an annulment, and we intend to continue this practice,” Welsh said.
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia charges $800 per annulment, an amount that hasn't changed in more than 10 years, spokesman Kenneth Gavin said. It does not plan to eliminate the fees.
The pope proposed no-cost annulments Nov. 5. He said the processes can be “so long and weighty” that they discourage people from following through, and he pointed to “public scandals.” He revealed, for instance, that he had to dismiss a church official for allegedly expediting annulments in exchange for $10,000.
“When you attach economic interests to spiritual interests, it is not about God,” Francis said. “The mother church has so much generosity it could provide justice free of charge.”
U.S. annulments under the Catholic church are on the decline, from 60,691 in 1985 to 18,558 last year, according to data from Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
But so are divorces and the number of people marrying in the first place, the center's researcher Mark Gray pointed out. He also observed increasing numbers of Catholics choosing to marry outside the church.
Both Pittsburgh and Erie report handling fewer than 200 annulments per year.
U.S. Catholics are still less likely to divorce than non-Catholics, data compiled by Gray show. In a 2012 survey, 28 percent of Catholics who had been married reported having a divorce, compared to 36 percent of all adults who had been married reporting a divorce, 39 percent of Protestants and 42 percent with no affiliation.
