Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Pope: Not everyone has right to marry, urges care

Pope Benedict XVI has told priests to do a better job counseling would-be spouses to ensure the marriages last and says not everyone has an automatic right to a wedding.

Benedict made the comments Saturday to the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments. 

An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.

Benedict acknowledged that the problems that would allow for a marriage to be annulled cannot always be identified beforehand. 

But he said better pre-marriage counseling, which the Catholic Church requires of the faithful, could help avoid a "vicious circle" of invalid marriages.

SIC: AP/INT'L