Vatican City, May 3, 2018 / 12:38 pm
The Vatican issued guidelines and norms Thursday for calling for new courses in canon law, designed to respond to a worldwide, "urgent need" for more people with adequate training on the topic of marriage annulments in Church law.
The instruction, published May 3, notes that there is an "urgent need to have a greater number of clerics, laity and religious [who are] well trained in canon law... to make up for the shortage of competent staff in many dioceses of the world."
Issued by the Congregation for Catholic Education, the instruction outlines how canon law faculties, departments, and chairs can add courses on marriage law for those who deal with issues related to marriage and declarations of nullity, or annulments.
The document notes that training programs should be developed for people who do not already, or do not yet, have an ecclesiastical degree in canon law, in response to a need which has become more acute following changes to the marriage annulment process in recent years.