VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI decried what he called a spreading pessimism about marriage, saying Thursday it is not the impossible undertaking many make it out to be.
Benedict was addressing the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments, the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.
Circumstances for granting annulments include refusal by a husband or a wife to have children or the “psychological incapability” of one of the spouses to contract a valid marriage.
The pope said that granting too many annulments on the grounds of “psychological incapacity” risks giving people the pessimistic impression that marriage is almost impossible.
He said the judges and lawyers of the Rota should follow guidelines that say there must be a “specific mental anomaly” that seriously impairs the use of reason either when vows are exchanged or during the marriage.
The Vatican’s concern largely is directed at the United States, where the annulment approach has been more common among Catholics and where annulments are considered to often be granted too easily.
According to Vatican statistics, the Holy See estimated that about 70 percent of all annulment requests worldwide came from the United States in 2002. In that year, of the 56,000 requests worldwide, 46,000 were granted.
Benedict said the Catholic church should stress everyone’s ability in principle to enter into marriage.
“Reaffirming the inborn human capacity for marriage is, in fact, the starting point for helping couples discover the natural reality of marriage and the importance it has for salvation,” he said.
Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, had expressed dismay over what he saw as annulments being sometimes too easily granted.
Catholics who receive annulments are then free to marry in the church.
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