Vatican City - Pope Benedict XVI acknowledged concern about the plight of divorced Catholics, who are not permitted to receive Communion after remarriage, and appealed to a Vatican tribunal Saturday to issue "rapid" rulings on annulment requests.
He told the Roman Rota that its decisions should come quickly for the sake of the faithful, but he reminded church jurists that their paramount task in making a ruling was determining the "truth" about whether the marriage was valid.
An annulment means that the marriage was invalid, essentially concluding that the marriage never existed, leaving the faithful free to remarry and receive Communion.
Last fall, a Vatican gathering of bishops from around the world reaffirmed church policy denying Communion to divorced Catholics who remarry without annulments. The bishops urged these people to make every possible effort to have their previous marriages annulled by the Roman Rota.
Benedict acknowledged "pastoral concern" about the plight of these Catholics and noted that the issue had "emerged repeatedly" during the bishops' gathering.
"It could seem, at first glance, that the pastoral concern reflected in the work of the Synod and the juridical rules" for church tribunals "almost end up conflicting," Benedict said.
"On one hand, it would seem that the Synod fathers had invited church tribunals to act so that the faithful not married under church law can regularize the marriage situation as soon as possible and approach" the Communion banquet, the pope said.
"On the other hand, though, canon law and recent (Vatican) instruction would seem, instead, to put limits on this pastoral push," which makes it appear "as if the principle concern was that of completing the judicial formalities," Benedict said.
The pope also said it was important that the church help couples try to work out their problems and "find the path of reconciliation."
Circumstances for granting annulments include refusal by a husband or a wife to have children, impotence, or the psychological incapability of one of the spouses to contract a valid marriage.