{"id":13311,"date":"2015-09-09T07:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/%year%\/%monthnum%\/%day%\/relatively-few-u-s-catholics-skipped-annulment-because-of-cost-or-complications\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:19:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:19:22","slug":"relatively-few-u-s-catholics-skipped-annulment-because-of-cost-or-complications","status":"publish","type":"short-read","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/09\/09\/relatively-few-u-s-catholics-skipped-annulment-because-of-cost-or-complications\/","title":{"rendered":"Relatively few U.S. Catholics skipped annulment because of cost or complications"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/chapter-3-family-matters\/#marriage-divorce-and-cohabitation\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png\" alt=\"Catholics Seeking Annulment\" width=\"200\" height=\"387\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pope Francis has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2015\/09\/08\/us-pope-annulments-idUSKCN0R814C20150908?utm_source=twitter\">announced major changes<\/a> to the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s procedures for marriage annulments. While the new changes are aimed at making annulments faster and less expensive, a <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/u-s-catholics-open-to-non-traditional-families\/\">recent Pew Research Center survey<\/a> found that most divorced U.S. Catholics who did not seek annulments did not cite the complicated nature of the process as a reason.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Catholic Church teaches that marriages are unbreakable unions, and thus remarrying after a divorce (without an annulment) is a sin.\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">But an annulment \u2013 a declaration from the church that a marriage was never valid \u2013 makes it possible for divorced Catholics to enter a new marriage and still be eligible to receive Communion.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A quarter of U.S. Catholic adults say they have experienced a divorce, according to our survey. That\u2019s somewhat fewer than among U.S. adults overall (30%). Among U.S. Catholics who have ever been divorced, roughly a quarter (26%) say they or their former spouse have sought an annulment from the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The survey asked all U.S. Catholics who have been divorced and have <em>not<\/em> sought an annulment why they did not do so.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most common type of answer was that Catholics did not seek an annulment because they did not see it as necessary or did not want to get an annulment (43%).\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">And about one-in-five divorced U.S. Catholics who did not seek an annulment say they were not married in the Catholic Church in the first place (21%), and may have thought they were ineligible for an annulment.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><!--more--><\/p>\n\n<figure><a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/chapter-3-family-matters\/#marriage-divorce-and-cohabitation\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-36.png\" alt=\"Catholics Views on Annulment\" width=\"420\" height=\"565\"><\/a><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only about one-in-ten say\u00a0they did not attempt to get an annulment because it was too expensive (7%) or too complicated or time-consuming (4%).<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While there were not enough respondents who were divorced and remarried without an annulment to analyze separately in the survey, they can be looked at together with Catholics who are currently living with a romantic partner outside of marriage, another group <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/chapter-2-participation-in-catholic-rites-and-observances\/#fn-23735-8\">presumably ineligible for Communion<\/a> in the eyes of the church.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this combined group, 34% say they <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/chapter-2-participation-in-catholic-rites-and-observances\/\">receive Communion every time they attend Mass<\/a> \u2013 fewer than the 45% of all other U.S. Catholics who say the same. But still, only about three-in-ten (29%) Catholics who are cohabiting or divorced and remarried without an annulment say they <em>never<\/em> receive Communion, while an additional 5% say they never attend Mass.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">About a third (35%) of all U.S. Catholics say\u00a0remarrying after a divorce without an annulment is a sin. Roughly half (49%) say\u00a0this is <em>not<\/em> a sin. And about six-in-ten Catholics (62%) say\u00a0the church should allow divorced Catholics who remarry without getting an annulment to receive Communion, while 54% say\u00a0they <a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/religion\/2015\/09\/02\/chapter-4-expectations-of-the-church\/\">expect this change to happen<\/a> in the next few decades.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pope Francis has announced major changes to the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s procedures for marriage annulments. While the new changes are aimed at making annulments faster and less expensive, a recent Pew Research survey found that most divorced U.S. Catholics who did not seek annulments did not cite the complicated nature of the process as a reason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"sub_headline":null,"sub_title":"","_crdt_document":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"relatedPosts":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"bylines":[{"key":"8501f648822e97159d40e0da1c94a68e","termId":854}],"acknowledgements":[],"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[]},"categories":[180,179,224],"bylines":[854],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[467],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[517],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-13311","short-read","type-short-read","status-publish","hentry","category-catholicism","category-christianity","category-divorce","bylines-michael-lipka","formats-short-read","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-religion"],"label":"Short Read","post_parent":0,"word_count":442,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/short-reads\/2015\/09\/09\/relatively-few-u-s-catholics-skipped-annulment-because-of-cost-or-complications\/","art_direction":{"A1":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=200&h=317&crop=1","width":200,"height":317,"chartArt":false},"A2":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=200&h=151&crop=1","width":200,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"A3":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=194&h=110&crop=1","width":194,"height":110,"chartArt":false},"A4":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=200&h=151&crop=1","width":200,"height":151,"chartArt":false},"XL":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=200&h=387&crop=1","width":200,"height":387,"chartArt":false},"social":{"id":24518,"rawUrl":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2015\/09\/PG-2015-09-02_usCatholics-35.png?w=200&h=387&crop=1","width":200,"height":387,"chartArt":false}},"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Relatively few U.S. Catholics skipped annulment because of cost or complications","description":"Pope Francis has announced major changes to the Roman Catholic Church\u2019s procedures for marriage annulments. 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