Reacting to the Supreme Court’s order which said that divorces in Church don’t have legal sanctity, church authorities have said that in fact there is no concept of divorce in church. The church only allows nullification of marriages and this too is a complex process which takes place only after legal divorce from the court.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court while rejecting the plea of advocate Claris Pais from seeking legal approval for church’s divorce, said that the divorces from Church courts or ecclesiastical tribunals has no legal validity and remarriages after such divorces would be a criminal offence.
However, while speaking to media, church authorities said ecclesiastical tribunals usually take divorce cases only after receiving a legal divorce from a civil court.
According to church authorities, the annulment process involves a long and complicated procedure. Catholic Bishop's Council of India Fr Varghese Vallikkatt told The Times of India that the present SC ruling doesn’t seem relevant to the Church as it doesn’t take divorce cases prior to a legal divorce from courts.
Moreover, as per reports, the annulment process through the Church is more complex than civil court divorce procedures.
Fr Jose Kottayail, former secretary of the KCBC family commission, told ToI, “The Pope has urged the Church to make the annulment process simple and quick.”